FireBeater

Lung cancer isn’t the only risk associated with smoking. In fact, discarded cigarettes are the number one cause of house fires in the US and eight other countries with statistics available. These cigarette fires contribute to the highest number of injuries, deaths, and damages in residential areas. It is estimated that smoking causes 30 of US and 10 of global fire deaths. Sadly, one quarter of these victims weren’t the smokers whose cigarettes started the fire–34 are the children of the smokers, 25 are neighbors or friends, and 14 are spouses or partners. Thankfully, the US fire tolls decreased when smoking started to decrease, and the trend has continued. This does not mean that smoking related fires are not an issuethey are still a large contributor to fire related deaths and billions of dollars in residential damages.Today, there are fire safe cigarettes that are designed to extinguish faster than standard cigarettes. In the US, the initials FSC (Fire Standards Compliant) can be found above the barcode of fire safe, or lower ignition cigarettes. On January 1^st, 2010, the fire-safe law was effective in 43 states and will become effective in all 50 starting in 2012. While these cigarettes reduce the risk of cigarette fires, you should still be wary when discarding used cigarette butts. A simple spark can set a piece of paper in the trash on fire, and that one spark can lead to a full on house fire if left untended. Always ash your cigarettes in an ash tray and discard them in an appropriate manner, meaning don’t throw your finished cig in a bush or on the sidewalk. Ultimately, you shouldn’t be smoking at allit’s proven to cause lung cancer and is extremely addicting.

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