[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 27 (Friday, March 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          FIRESAFE CIGARETTES?

  (Mr. MOAKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to the 
Justice Department's investigation into the possibility of an agreement 
amongst cigarette manufacturers to suppress product research and 
development on firesafe cigarettes. I commend the Justice Department 
for investigating whether the cigarette companies have had a 
gentlemen's agreement not to put these cigarettes into the marketplace.
  For 15 years I have been pushing for legislation calling for 
cigarettes that are less likely to cause fires. My previous bills have 
laid the groundwork for H.R. 3885, which requires the Consumer Product 
Safety Commission to promulgate fire safety standards in 1 year and 
requires cigarette manufacturers to comply within another year. We can 
not afford further delays.
  Since I started working on this issue more than 20,000 people have 
been killed by cigarette-related fires and thousands more have been 
seriously injured. Many of the victims are innocent children. How does 
a mother tell a young boy he has to go through life seriously 
disfigured because the guy in the apartment next door fell asleep with 
a burning cigarette in his hand.
  Fires caused by carelessly discarded cigarettes can be prevented. The 
cigarette manufacturers are able to produce such cigarettes. In fact, 
there are five of these cigarettes already in the marketplace. More 
White Lights 120's. More 120's, Virginia Slims Superslims 100s, Capri 
Lights 100s, and Eve Lights 120s, are proven to reduce fires. Each 
company has a firesafe cigarette and they have a moral and legal 
obligation to make all cigarettes firesafe.
  We cannot afford further delays in calling for all cigarettes to be 
firesafe. For every year that passes more than 1,200 people die and 
thousands more are maimed or permanently disfigured. My legislation 
will require that the cigarette manufacturers sell firesafe cigarettes. 
Please join me in protecting our Nation's children from these insidious 
fires.
  I submit the Washington Post article for the Record:

                         Fire-Safe Cigarettes?

                        (By Michael J. Sniffen)

       The Justice Department is investigating whether tobacco 
     companies illegally agreed not to produce or sell cigarettes 
     that are less likely to start fires.
       Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said this week 
     that, ``the antitrust division is conducting an investigation 
     into the possibility of agreement among cigarette companies 
     to suppress product research and development regarding fire-
     safe cigarettes.''
       Vic Han, a spokesman for Philip Morris Cos., said there has 
     been ``absolutely no suppression'' of such products.
       Talamona said the department has issued civil investigative 
     demands, which are the equivalent of subpoenas in the 
     division's civil antitrust investigations. But she would not 
     say what companies had received them or discuss details of 
     the investigation.
       Andrew McGuire of the Trauma Foundation is San Francisco, 
     which lobbies for fire-safe cigarettes, said the 
     investigation appears to have begun about four months ago.
       McGuire said fire-safe cigarettes are feasible but that 
     tobacco companies have resisted marketing them because ``they 
     don't want the fallout of product liability lawsuits over 
     burn deaths and burn injuries caused by their current 
     cigarettes.''
       Peggy Carter of Reynolds Tobacco in Winston-Salem, N.C., 
     said the company acknowledged existence of the Justice 
     Department investigation in a footnote to a recent stock 
     filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She said 
     SEC rules prevented her from commenting further.
       In New York, Han said, ``I can confirm that Philip Morris 
     USA has received a civil investigative demand from the 
     antitrust division . . . in an investigation of possible 
     joint activity among United States manufacturers in the 
     production and sale of cigarettes including possible joint 
     activities to limit new product development, specifically in 
     the area of reduced ignition propensity cigarettes.''
       There were 1,220 deaths, 3,358 injuries and $400 million in 
     property damage from 44,000 cigarette-ignited fires in 1990, 
     the most recent year with complete data, according to the 
     Center for Fire Research of the government's National 
     Institute of Standards and Technology.
       A campaign to persuade the tobacco companies to produce 
     fire-safe cigarettes was begun in 1978 by McGuire's Trauma 
     Foundation, which seeks to prevent injuries and injury-
     related deaths. The trauma organization, which is supported 
     by foundation grants and funds from the federal Centers for 
     Disease Control and Prevention, is located in San Francisco 
     General Hospital.
       ``There's no doubt the industry has known for a long time 
     how to make fire-safe cigarettes and hasn't done it,'' said 
     Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard of the 
     Tobacco Projects Liability Project, ``because if a really 
     safe cigarette is available that would open the companies to 
     lawsuits over the ones that aren't safe.''
       Asked to comment on the government's investigation and the 
     longstanding charges of suppression, Walker Merryman of the 
     Tobacco Institute, an industry group, said, ``Anything having 
     to do with litigation is something we never comment on.''

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