ARCHIVED - Program Estimates the Damage of Cigarette Fires

They say, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." In fact, Health Canada researchers have discovered that where there's cigarette smoke, there's a major increase in fires.

Our Tobacco Control Programme recently analyzed statistics on fires resulting from smoking. These included fires started by lit cigarettes, cigars and pipes, as well as by matches and lighters.

The data had been collected from 1995 to 1999 by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. Our scientists analyzed the data and found some startling results.

What We Found

In that time, 14,030 fires were started in Canada by smokers' materials. These fires killed 356 people, injured 1,615 and cost more than $200 million in property damage. This works out to about 70 deaths per year. The victims of these fires tended to be the most vulnerable members of our society, including children, the elderly and the poor.

We also found that:

• Cigarettes are the number one known cause of fire-related fatalities in Canada;
• Cigarettes are the leading cause of residential fires in Canada; and
• Fires started by cigarettes tend to result in more deaths and more property damage than fires started by other sources.

Research Informs Regulation

Health Canada's research has led to a new set of rules to reduce the fire-risk of cigarettes.

The Cigarette Ignition Propensity Regulations require all cigarettes manufactured in or imported for sale into Canada on or after October 1, 2005 to meet an ignition propensity standard.

Canada is the first country to have a national cigarette ignition propensity standard. This is an important step towards reducing the unnecessary death, injury and property damage caused by cigarette fires.

Cigarettes can be made to be less fire-prone in a number of ways, including:

• Reducing the amount of tobacco in the cigarette;
• Making the cigarette paper less porous;
• Decreasing the circumference of the cigarette; and
• Adding bands to the cigarette paper.