The Cigarette Fire Safety Act of 2004

THE CIGARETTE FIRE SAFETY ACT OF 2004 -- (Extensions of Remarks - April 02, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY
OF MASSACHUSETTS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2004

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, today my friend, Congressman PETER KING and I rise to introduce on a bipartisan basis the Cigarette Fire Safety Act of 2004. This legislation will set a reasonable ignition standard for cigarettes and help to prevent an estimated 800 deaths, 2,200 injuries and nearly $560 million dollars in damages caused by cigarette ignited fires every year. We are joined today by 38 of our colleagues to begin what we hope is the last leg of a very long
journey.

It is common knowledge that smoking is considered one of the nation's leading causes of preventable death, but it's less widely known that cigarettes are also the leading cause of fatal fires. Every year thousands of innocent people are killed, maimed or permanently disfigured by carelessly discarded cigarettes. The real tragedy is that many of these fires could be prevented by making a few small adjustments to the design of the cigarette at a cost of only pennies.

Over twenty years ago, our former colleague and friend, Joe Moakley, became involved with this issue when a family of seven perished in a fire ignited by a cigarette in his Congressional District. Five children-all under the age of ten-were burned to death along with their parents on Memorial Day Weekend in 1979.

Through Joe's relentless work on this issue, Congress passed two technical bills into law that laid the foundation for this legislation. The first bill, the Federal Cigarette Safety Act of 1984, formed a Technical Study Group, which established that it was, contrary to the tobacco industry's assertions, technically and economically feasible to manufacture a cigarette that is less likely to ignite a fire without increasing the risk of health consequences. The second bill, the Federal Safe Cigarette Act of 1990, established the methodology for testing the ignition propensity of cigarettes.

Recently we have made great steps forward in reducing risk of cigarette ignited fires. Phillip Morris has launched Merit cigarettes-their brand of less fire prone cigarettes. Merit cigarettes have proved that less fire prone cigarettes are both technically and commercially feasible.

Last year in a historic move, the state of New York passed the very first cigarette fire safety standard. By the end of this June, New York will require that all tobacco companies that sell cigarettes certify that no more than 25 percent of the cigarettes sold fail the ignition propensity test established by the American Society of Testing and Materials ("ASTM"). That means that cigarettes are far less likely to start a fire if they are left unattended. This law will make great strides towards preventing the all too frequent devastating cigarette ignited fires in New York.

Taking the lead from New York State and using their standard, two days ago Canada became the first nation to pass a cigarette fire safety standard.

However, New Yorkers and Canadians should not be the only ones who are protected from these little torches. Everyone in the United States deserves the same level of protection from fires caused by cigarettes. That is why today I am proposing a bill that requires that the CPSC adopt the New York cigarette fire safety standard as the national standard.

We can no longer tolerate losing one more innocent child or putting one more firefighter at risk in a fire that could have been prevented at the cost of pennies by making a couple simple changes to the construction of a cigarette. Together we can save thousands of lives and prevent the tremendous pain of thousands more burn victims. I urge you to support this bill.

END