Daily Doc: PM, 1992: Fire Safe Cigarette Would Cut into Profits


Daily Doc: Fire Safe Cigarette Would Cut into Profits


Title: Corporate Affairs
PM, 1992
Bates #: 2025869598/9605

January 18, 2000

Cigarettes chemically treated to keep burning even when left unattended. This results in more cigarettes being used, but it also creates a fire hazard. For many years, advocates have been lobbying for laws that would require the tobacco industry to make cigarettes that go out when left unattended. It has taken decades for the industry to come up with such a product. Why did it take the industry so long? Because such a product would cost the industry money, according to this Philip Morris document.

Tactics taken by the industry to avoid producing a fire-safe cigarette included a massive plan to befriend the fire-service community across the United States by giving grants to hundreds of local fire departments across the nation. This was known as "inoculating hostiles" (the Fire Service was deemed a huge potential enemy to the industry on this issue). Another tactic taken was the production "fire safety" programs and materials aimed at convincing the public at large that is was their responsibility, not the smoker's, to be vigilant and protect people against the fire dangers that smokers caused. At the end of this message I am including a copy of a brochure that my assistant found recently at our Chamber of Commerce that demonstrates this. It is dated 1979.
CITATION
Title: Corporate Affairs
Type of Document: Report
Author:N/A (Organization author, Philip Morris)
Recipient: N/A
Date: 19920000
Site: Philip Morris Tobacco document site http://www.pmdocs.com/
Page Count: 8
Bates No.2025869598/9605
URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2025869598/9605
Litigation Usage: None yet
Found Using Search Criteria: "five year plan"
QUOTES (from Bates Page. 2025869605)
Efforts by anti-smoking groups to mandate a "fire safe" cigarette could destroy the competitiveness of leading brands and increase the cost of manufacturing cigarettes.

STRATEGY

During the plan period, PM-USA will expand coalitions among the fire prevention community and public policy makers to diffuse support of "fire safe" cigarette legislation at the state and federal level as well as build public awareness of fire safety and prevention.


GRAPHIC: Smokers Need Watchers:

Front:

Learn Not ot Burn

Smokers need watchers [Graphic of someone pointing out a burning hole in a cushion, while holding the other hand up as if hailing someone.]

Back:

Learn not to burn

Watch other people who smoke. They can set themselves or the house on fire.

Watch any smoker who is drinking or is sick in bed and might be smoking.

Watch older or handicapped persons who smoke. When motor ability is affected, clothing can catch fire by accident.

Check wastebaskets and cushions in rooms where people have been smoking.
Look for embers, cigarettes or matches that are still burning.

A smoke detector should be installed on each level of the house and outside sleeping areas

c National Fire Protection Association
Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02269

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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
This document's URL is: http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/dd/ddfiresafeprofits.html

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