2009-01-06 17:17:50 - Cigarette makers could soon be sued by innocent victims killed or injured in cigarette firers because of new laws in many states which make it clear that there is a less-lethal alternative to conventional cigarettes -- the major cause of residential fire deaths in the U.S.

Twenty-two states, plus the District of Columbia and Canada, have now implemented laws which require manufacturers to make cigarettes which self extinguish when not puffed on so that they will now longer trigger fires when dropped by smokers who are careless, drunk, or on drugs -- the most common cause of fatal home fires.

Until recently, lawyers representing the victims of such fires, and knowing that many guilty smokers lack sufficient insurance or personal assets to compensate their clients, have tried to sue hotels, motels, dormitories, etc. for permitting smoking, smoke detector manufacturers for alleged ineffectiveness in providing adequate warning, and other third parties. But they generally did not think to sue tobacco companies, assuming that there's no way to make

a fire-safe cigarette.

But the growing number of laws mandating that cigarettes must be made fire safe, and especially states where such cigarettes are now being sold, demonstrate conclusively that there is a simple and feasible alternative design -- the major legal urtle, so far, in suing tobacco companies for negligent design and manufacture.

Indeed, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf, the culpability of the tobacco companies is even greater than generally imagined. Lawyers for plaintiffs will be able to show -- with actual demonstrations -- that cigarettes made with ordinary tobacco naturally extinguish if not puffed on, just like pipes and cigars.

"Once attorneys show juries that it was the deliberate decision of tobacco companies to add oxidizing chemicals to the tobacco so that cigarettes continue to burn when dropped on flammable materials and cause needless deaths and tragically painful injuries, jurors will have little trouble finding clear liability and correspondingly high damages," predicts Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national antismoking organization.

Such law suits, while long overdue, are likely to only hasten the inevitable switch from conventional cigarettes -- those made with oxidizing chemicals so that they cause home fires -- to fire-safe [also called "Reduced Ignition Propensity" or "self extinguishing"] cigarettes which prevent virtually all such fires, since more and more laws are requiring tobacco companies to sell only the safer versions, says Banzhaf.

He notes that 22 states has just laws in effect, 15 more have passed legislation which will be effective shortly, and seven states are currently considering such bills.

"The country will soon reach a tipping point where it will not longer be feasible for tobacco companies to make conventional cigarettes for sale in the small number of states which have not yet acted to protect their citizens. Probably within a year, we will have eliminated the major cause of residential fire deaths in the U.S."

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // ash.org