Old Work Comes to Fruition - not PC

This post is completely unrelated to PC, but something I worked on in the States and I'm happy to report that the slow wheels of government have finally brought it to fruition.  The issue involves fires, specifically those ignited by a carelessly disposed cigarette.  Turns out, cigarettes are the #1 cause of all fatal household fires, igniting over one-third of these blazes.  Usually, a fire starts when a person falls asleep and a lit cigarette falls into a couch or bed.  There, because of the way a cigarette is manufactured, it can continue to smolder sometimes for hours.  Thus, it is not until after most have fallen asleep that a fire actually erupts, which is why these fires tend to be so deadly.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  Cigarettes can be manufactured to "self-extinguish."  Instead of burning for hours, by creating small "speed bumps" in the cigarette's paper its burn will slow and eventually stop once left idle.

As I wrote in "Where There's Smoking, There's Fire," this technology has existed since the 1980s, but the Tobacco Industry never implemented it.

Cars are equipped with seat belts, proper bumpers, and a slew of other safety features.  Toys are made to ensure that they do not pose choking hazards.  Lighters are required to have simple safety locks and halogen lamps turn off automatically if they get too hot.  All of these basic product safety measures save lives.  Manufacturers are required to make their products safe and minimize harm.  The tobacco industry must be held to the same basic consumer product safety principles.

My endeavors to make this change into a law were unsuccessful, but through the continuing work of Eric Bourassa at MASSPIRG, Massachusetts Governor Romney recently signed the bill into law.  Now that six states have this law (MA, NY, CA, VT, IL, and NH) and one-quarter of the US population are covered by it, I hope that the Tobacco Industry will see fit to switch all its product lines in all states to these less-incendiary kinds.

Well, that or just stop making cigarettes all-together...