Tobacco.org

DZWONKOWSKI: Smokers will soon do a slow burn in Michigan  

Michigan smokers may feel themselves working at it a little harder next year when only "slow burn" cigarettes can be sold in the state. But the bill signed into law last week by Gov. Jennifer Granholm should cut down on fires due to smokers falling asleep, which is the cause of up to 800 deaths in the United States each year. Slow-burn cigarettes are designed to go out if no one is puffing on them.

The states have taken the lead on requiring them since federal legislation bogged down again in 2000. A national requirement for safer cigarettes has actually been kicking around in Congress since the 1930s; the late U.S. Sen. Phil Hart of Michigan almost got it enacted in 1974 before the tobacco lobby beat it back again. The major cigarette makers have had slow-burn products widely available for a few years, ever since New York in 2004 became the first state to require them.

Michigan is actually one of the last states to move on this. ...

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