November 20, 2009
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Smokers burned up over ‘fire safe’ cigs
Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo
Sarah Jones, of Smokers Outlet, says most of her customers are unhappy with the self extinguishing cigarettes.
Terressa Grier has noticed something strange in her Marlboro Lights. She’s puffing harder to get the full nicotine satisfaction.
“I don’t know what’s in them. I thought it’s just me, but then other people are like ‘no, they do have a bad taste,’” said Ms. Grier, a 32-year-old smoker in Gower, Mo., who has smoked since she was 19.
Two weeks ago, her husband, a smokeless tobacco chewer, picked up her Marlboro pack and showed her three letters next to the bar code, FSC.
Fire-Safe Cigarettes — a fast-extinguishing cigarette aimed at lowering home fire deaths — were signed into law in Missouri last month and will be effective on Sept. 1, 2010. Many local retailers have already stocked up on the new smokes and drawn the ire of customers.
Complaints range from becoming ill from a coppery taste, a Democrat conspiracy to get smokers to quit, even metals put in the cigarette. “Customers have told me they thought they may have put fiberglass in there. And they’re wondering how can that be really healthy for you,” said Sarah Jones, of Smokers Outlet on Frederick Avenue. “I mean cigarettes are already really unhealthy.”
Fire-safe cigarettes are designed to go out if they’re not puffed on regularly. They have a special paper that causes the lighted end to burn out when the burning tobacco reaches a treated section.
Along with other measures like flame-resistant mattresses, fire officials hope that the new cigarettes will reduce the chances for house fires caused by people falling asleep while smoking.
Three years ago, the St. Joseph Fire Department blamed a cigarette in a bedroom as the apparent cause for a fire that destroyed Misty Crockett’s home. No one was home at the time.
Ms. Crockett blames the fire at her home, owned by her now-deceased fiancé, on an electrical malfunction. A smoker for 14 years, she has accepted the new cigarette as a bothersome new reality for the cost of being a smoker.
“You put your cigarette down and go into the other room and you come back and it’s out,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do if you’re going to be a smoker. They don’t taste any different, but you just have to suck harder to get anything out of them.”
The fire-safe packs sell for the same price as traditional cigarettes. In the last six years, 37 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws requiring that only fire-safe smokes be sold.
Some smokers have crossed state borders to buy the old style of cigarettes. The new cigarettes became law in Kansas on July 1. The cigarettes become law in Nebraska on Jan. 1, 2010. Tobacco companies say they can’t afford to keep making both cigarette varieties.
Ms. Grier, the trusty Marlboro Light smoker, has switched to Camels, which she says is the only traditional cigarette that her local gas station still stocks. Once those are sold out, Ms. Grier isn’t sure what she’ll do. “Maybe just quit,” she said, half-sure.
Ahmad Safi can be reached
at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.
This story has 14 comments. Click here to join in on the discussion.
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The fire safe cigarette chemical, ethylene vinyl acetate has been added to all cigarettes in packs that have the FSC lettering on the side or bottom of the pack. Ethylene vinyl acetate is added in rings to the cigarette paper. When the smoker is not inhaling and the lit part of the cigarette gets to the chemical ring, it will self extinguish. The purpose being that it will reduce the amount of fires created by lit cigarettes that are left unattended.
How does an unattended cigarette burn down a house when no one is home at the time?
FSC make it so you have to suck harder and more often on the cigarette to keep it going. It may decrease fire related deaths, but I bet the cancer rates will skyrocket.
shadow.......ZING!
Still want that cigarette with good old nicotine in it? Simply plant your own little row along a fence line etc. Marijuana smokers have been doing it for years. Lots of seeds available around Weston Mo.
here's a novel idea,just quite. i did, hard ,but, not impossible.
This new law just takes the responsiblity out of the consumers hands most people that smoke do not leave their cigerettes unattended. I smoke and I know I do not leave mine laying around.Just like the goverment wants the FDA to requlate the tobacco industry that is just crazy as well and cost the tax payer more as well and all of this cost jobs in the tobacco industry. I understand the reason to not promote under age smoking and I believe that is a good law and the state have taken care of underage sales but once we become adults we are responsible for our own actions and are able to make a choice if we want to smoke or not. It should not be up to the poiticians to tell us what to do or the tobacco companys how to make their product.This still america where our rights are slowly being removed from us.I would also like to say I always respect the right of a non-smoker and honor their right not to have to breath my smoke as well our rights as smokers should not be removed from us and we should be able to buy what we want and be responsible.Well I guess we will have to start to growing our own tobacco and become tobacco farmers.I would also like to know what the affect of this new chemical does have on us.We are adults and know what the affects of the tobacco are but we should also know what this new chemical does before it was added to our product.
i think the president of philip morris said it best. the only smokers in the world are::: the poor, the ignorant, the children, and i dont remember the forth. someone help me here. i myself smoked for 5 years and was up to 4 packs a day. the last pack cost 50 cents. in 75. i have never been sorry for quitting. i still get upset when someone lights up when im arround them. i only wish you can kill yourself slowly when im not arround to smell it.i hope i havent upset anyone here, i think you have a right to commit suicide if you want. i have seen too many people suffer form the effects of prolong smoking. my father and millions of others have in my life time. isnt it time you look at yourself differently and love yourself enough to stop today?
I think maybe the cigarettes are geared more towards people that choose to smoke in bed and fall asleep with a lit cig.
I 'member the "forth" category wuz peeple who cain't spell
This comment was removed by the site staff.
revrinjoe August 11, 2009 at 2:47 p.m.This comment was removed by the site staff.
dalearch August 11, 2009 at 8:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)I like jenn's idea. I want to get to know her better.
wright winger, thanks for finding the answer for me. only thing is , you must have understood what the hell i was writting or you wouldnt have had a thing to write yourself.as i stated , i dont smoke, sorry if you do, you must be the forth" ( opinionated). i hate it when i dont please everyone. now i will be very hurt and wont get a wink of sleep tonight! good one dalearch , you havent changed a bit , i liked the part about jjenn too!