Dozens of Cigarette Brands Fail Fire Safety Test [08/25-1]
Excerpts from: Major cigarette brands fail fire test
By Tom Blackwell National
Post [08/25/03]
Dozens of cigarette brands proved to be potential fire hazards in recent government
experiments, fuelling Health Canada's controversial campaign for new rules to
make tobacco products less dangerous.
All of about 30 brands examined for the department failed the safety tests,
smouldering unimpeded to the end when lit and placed on several layers of paper,
said Denis Choiniere, a department spokesman.
Researchers believe such results indicate the cigarettes could have set alight
stuffed furniture if left unattended.
Research has gone on for years on what are called "low-ignition propensity"
cigarettes. Two versions of the Merit brand in the United States have been successful
in testing, Mr. Choiniere said. They use a technique called banding, which puts
small ridges of paper along the length of the cigarette, creating barriers that
are supposed to extinguish a discarded cigarette when the ash burns to that point.
But banding is not the only way of reducing the ignition propensity of cigarettes,
Health Canada says.
Reducing the density of tobacco packed into them, using less porous paper and
producing narrower cigarettes have been shown to make the products safer.
JTI-Macdonald argued in its brief to Health Canada that fire-safety changes
could result in smokers sucking in more tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and other
harmful ingredients.
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