Daily Doc: TI, 1990: Cigarettes, Fires and Fire Departments
Daily Doc: Cigarettes, Fires and Fire Departments
Title: Tobacco Institute, Public Affairs Division Proposed Budget 1991
TI, 1990
Bates #: TIMN0390579/0803
March 19, 2000
Cigarettes are designed to keep burning, even when left unattended. This design has rendered cigarettes the number one cause of fatal fires in the United States. Given this, why have American fire fighters been so silent about the fact cigarettes cause so many fires? After all, we often hear that drunk driving is a major cause of car accidents. As a result, police departments and state patrols across the country are cracking down on drunk driving--and saving lives as a result.
The question of why firefighters remain silent about the fact that the ubiquitous cigarette constitutes a major cause of fatal fires is very poignant. After all, these fires not only jeopardize firefighters' lives but also the lives of people who don't smoke, but who are unlucky enough to share quarters with smokers (such as apartment dwellers or workers in an office building).
The furniture and clothing industries have made significant gains in reducing the ignition propensity of their products, but the cigarette industry has made no reportable advances in this area. The lack of effort and improvement by cigarette makers in making fire-safe cigarettes could bring more scrutiny upon their products and increase the likelihood that government will step in and regulate cigarettes to make them safer. To stave off regulation, the cigarette makers needed a strategy that would 1) eliminate fire-fighter hostility towards their industry and products, and 2) give policy makers the impression that the tobacco industry is concerned and "doing something" to advance fire safety. This strategy also had to steer legislators attention away from recognizing that the industry was not pursuing the most effective course to decrease cigarette-related fire deaths: altering their product.
According to this document, Tobacco Institute, Public Affairs Division Proposed Budget 1991 the tobacco industry has been extraordinarily generous financially to fire fighting organizations, giving grants to hundreds of fire departments in major cities across the U.S. for "fire safety education programs" and provides them with "fire safety education materials."
Their tactic effectively quelled criticism of the safety risks of cigarette design by fire service organizations across the country.
This document reveals that the industry clearly recognizes the scope of the problem. Yet the document contains absolutely no mention of concern for the victims of cigarette-caused fires nor for the safety of the firefighters who must respond to these fires.
[NOTE: There is a lot more information in this lengthy document about the strategies used by the Tobacco Insatiate to fight public health and safety, but this excerpt will only focus on how the industry fought fire-safe cigarette legislation.]
CITATION
Title: Tobacco Institute, Public Affairs Division Proposed Budget 1991 - Confidential
Type of Document: Budget/financial
Author: The Tobacco Institute (corporate author)
Date: 19910000
Page Count: 225
Bates No. TIMN0390579/0803
Bates Range of this topic inside the document: TIMN390664/0674
This document was found using search criteria: "HBI and confidential" URL of first page: http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getimg.asp?pgno=0&start=0&bool=HBI%20and%20confidential&docid=TIMN0390579/0803&docnum=1
URL of entire document: NOTE: Since this document is 225 pages long, it takes some time to load. Go get a cup of coffee! It's worth it. http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=TIMN0390579/0803
QUOTES
FIRE SAFETY
Although the number of fire deaths attributed to careless smoking has been trending downward in the last decade, careless smoking still is cited as a leading cause of fire deaths in the United States. The statistic has remained fairly constant over the past several years, which is interpreted...as evidence that factors such as smoke detectors and public education must now focus on legislation mandating changes to the cigarette itself. The tobacco industry disagrees with this interpretation.
Careless smoking constitutes the largest part of residential fire deaths; however, other industries, such as the sprinkler, home builder and furniture industries are responding to pressures from the fire service and legislators by becoming increasingly involved in developing solutions to the residential fire problem.
Most states will wait for the federal work on the "fire-safe" cigarette[s] [but some] fire service and consumer activists...may be impatient with the pace of the federal effort and attempt to pass more stringent cigarette fire safety legislation.....
...The Tobacco Institute has helped improve relations between the tobacco industry and the fire service and has demonstrated that the industry is acting responsibly to help deal with the fire problem. The Institute remains a major and respected source of private sector support for fire prevention and education programs in the United States.
In 1990, the Institute's Fire Safety Education Program grew substantially. We now have working relationships with officials in more than 500 key [fire] departments in the United States. Our materials are now being used in thousands of [fire] departments, including those in more than 200 major cities. More than 85 state, regional and national fire service organization grants have been awarded since the program's inception.
Fire service hostility to the tobacco industry has subsided, but publicity given the industry in other areas recently has caused some departments to re-evaluate their willingness/ability to accept industry support. That pressure may intensify...
II. Objectives
To increase the awareness of and acceptance by key public officials and fire service leaders that the tobacco industry acts voluntarily and responsibly to help decrease accidental fires through fire prevention and fire safety education programs.
To increase the awareness of and acceptance by key public officials and fire service leaders of the difficulties of producing and regulating a commercially acceptable "fire-safe" cigarette.
III. Strategies, Goals and Tactics
Strategy I. Work with fire officials and...public officials at the state and/or local levels to...increase the availability of education and prevention programs for fire departments.
Goals and Tactics:
1. Strengthen the...relationships...with fire officials over the past nine years of The Institute's Fire Safety Education Program. A working relationship signifies (1) a TI-sponsored program in place; (2) TI staff contact with the local fire service; and (3) awareness or involvement of fire officials or other public officials.
2. Produce...a video on how to structure a basic fire safety education program. Feature the Institute's fire safety education materials and endorsements from users of those materials. The video will be used in legislative and fire service organization briefings....
3A. Continue funding fire safety education programs of individual fire departments....
3B. Continue grants to state, regional and national fire service organizations....In presentations at their conferences, update their members on....resources available from The Institute.
3C. Work with state fire marshals to coordinate grants in their states; encourage them to involve public officials in the presentation of grants.
3E. Follow up on all requests for assistance from fire service and public officials that have produces good results with previous grants from TI.
4. Seek opportunities to become members of fire service organization public education committees...and sit on advisory boards as appropriate...
5. Work with the Congressional Fire Services Institute to recognize...fire departments with outstanding public fire safety education programs.
...Conduct individual briefings as part of visits to [fire] departments...
...Appear on the programs of at least four national and five regional fire service conferences in 1991. Attend at least a dozen other conference to promote privately industry programs.
Resources:
Materials:
1. New Tools for Volunteer fire Fighters 2. Challenge for Life secondary school curriculum 3. FireCare: Fire Safety for Senior Citizens 5. FireSense: Fire Safety for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired 7. Project L.I.F.E. elementary school curricula 8. Chinese-language smoke detector television public service announcement 9. Burn Concerns, Inc. Juvenile Firesetters Workshops 10. "How Fast it Burned," University of Georgia college dormitory fire safety video...
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(970) 245-2120
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