Brigham P A, McGuire A
Burn Foundation, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
J Public Health Policy. 1995;16(4):433-9.
About 1,000 deaths, 3,000 serious injuries, and several billion dollars in costs of property loss, health care and pain and suffering, result each year in the U.S. from fires started by dropped cigarettes. Efforts to prevent these losses have progressed from admonitory slogans to product-flammability standards to addressing the cigarette itself. Two recent federal studies have: a) concluded that it is technically feasible to produce a cigarette with a reduced likelihood of starting fires, and b) published a broadly validated method by which cigarette brands can be tested for this propensity. The long-term effort of scientists, legislators and public health activists to develop and implement a fire-safe cigarette standard also constitutes a legal liability challenge and a threat to the relative and absolute size of the cigarette market shares held by major U.S. tobacco companies.
在美国，每年因掉落的香烟引发的火灾导致约1000人死亡、3000人受重伤，造成的财产损失、医疗保健费用以及痛苦和折磨等成本高达数十亿美元。预防这些损失的努力已从警示标语发展到产品易燃性标准，进而涉及香烟本身。最近的两项联邦研究：a）得出结论，生产起火可能性降低的香烟在技术上是可行的；b）公布了一种经过广泛验证的方法，可用于测试香烟品牌的这种倾向。科学家、立法者和公共卫生活动家为制定和实施防火香烟标准所做的长期努力，也构成了法律责任挑战，并对美国主要烟草公司所持香烟市场份额的相对和绝对规模构成威胁。
