Talking about Fire Safety...

New legislation came into effect in Texas on 1/1/09 that hopefully will safe a lot of lives and prevent many cigarette-ignited fires. Under the new laws, all cigarettes sold in Texas and Oklahoma must be certified fire standard compliant. Wholesalers and distributors will be allowed to sell their existing inventory, only if it was produced before January 1, 2009. The fire-safe cigarettes are less likely to burn when left unattended as the burning tobacco will reach one of the 2-3 "speed bumps" that will self-extinguish.

Some interesting facts from NFPA's Fire Analysis and Research Division:

• Cigarettes are a leading cause of home fire fatalities in the United States, killing 700 to 900 people - smokers and nonsmokers alike - per year.
  
• Smoking-material fires killed 800 people and injured 1,660 others in 2005. Ninety-three percent of the deaths and 78 percent of the injuries were in home fires.
  
• One-quarter of victims of smoking-material fire fatalities are not the smokers whose cigarettes started the fire: 34 percent are children of the smokers; 25 percent are neighbors or friends; 14 percent are spouses or partners; and 13 percent are parents.
  
• Discarded cigarettes are often the cause of grassfires.

Here's a look at the state's that have or are looking at adopting the new safer cigarettes:
(source: http://www.firesafecigarettes.org/)

Red - legislation in effect
Green - legislation has passed
Yellow - legislation has been filed
White - legislation has not been filed