[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 45 (Friday, April 2, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE CIGARETTE FIRE SAFETY ACT OF 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                         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.