Tobacco.org

Fire-safe cigarettes in stores  

In a nutshell, the new cigarettes don't burn as well as the old ones - which is good, if you want to prevent accidental fires, bad if you have to keep flicking your Bic.

Since Oct. 1, when Wisconsin became the 49th state with a fire-safe law, distributors have been required to purvey only the new variety of smokes.

They're not fire-proof, supporters of the law acknowledge, but they are less likely to continue burning when left unattended.

According to the state Department of Commerce, manufacturers typically wrap fire-safe cigarettes with two or three bands of less porous paper that act as "speed bumps."

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