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RICHMOND
Starting next month, cigarettes sold in Virginia must comply with standards aimed at making them less likely to start fires.
The General Assembly passed legislation in 2008 requiring that cigarettes sold in the state meet standards that make cigarettes more likely to self-extinguish.
The key change is the type of paper, which has several rows of less-porous bands that slow a cigarette's burn rate and makes it more likely to extinguish when discarded or left unattended.
Preliminary data collected by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs shows that, in 2009, cigarettes and other smoking materials were identified as the cause of 150 structure fires, four fatalities, 12 civilian and two firefighter injuries and more than $6 million in property losses.
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Why do the government thinik they know what's best for people?
Our government has nothing better to do than to attempt to justify their position withing the government. They want to change the way you smoke but keep the taxes at it's current rate. Here is a question for those who wear suits and work for the government thinking of crazy stuff,
Q: Smokers has died the most from smoking because
A. The smoker smoked cigarettes for years and develop lung cancer
B: The smoker went to sleep on the sofa and caught the sofa on fire after the cigarette fell from their fingers or mouth
The Obama health care will run by the same type of people who came up with idea, scary huh?
Should have expected the negative nancies.
You should be thanking the government for this because it gives you all something to complain about, since it's obvious you need that so badly. Whine Whine Whine.
Was wondering...
I smoke Marlboro Lights and had noticed in the last month or so they kept burning out on me. Not so sure the new makeup is safer because I puffed on one to get it lit back up and the whole hot cherry end fell of in my lap afterwards. Non smokers don't get on your soap box, i don't want to hear it. I know I need to quit.
Grow your own
tobacco and roll your own. Seems I read a story about this not too long ago about some folks out in the western part of the state who choose to grow, harvest and roll their own cigaretts. Good excercise tending the garden and you can smoke what you harvest. Very rewarding believe it or not. No additives in the tobacco or the paper, cheap as you can get, no taxes and as satisfying as a Marlboro.
ALWAYS SOMETHING
Our government is so out of control. Let me say this once, "it's not the cigarettes or the drugs or the alcohol that causes problems, it's the carelessness of a few idiots." People are the killers and not the products. Sure, change the products, put more restrictions, increase the tax rate for the product, and what ever else you want. What are you going to do next, put restrictions on soda companies, the food industry, and so on... So, now you want to control what I can eat, whether or not I want to smoke, drink a beer, the way I brush my hair (oops I have no hair to brush), the type of pants I can wear, where I can travel to and from, etc. Is this the route our government is going? What happened to FREEDOM OF CHOICE.. oh yeah as long as doesn't infringe on the cry babies that chose not to do that, the cry babies that wants people to eat healthy rather than letting us eat what we want.... yes cry babies!! Our government pandering to a bunch of cry babies!!
Have you ever
thought it might be to help protect people who aren't smoking and suffer because of smoker rudeness and carelessness, like in apartment buildings? Have you ever thought that i smokers were more polite, cancerned about others and their safety laws would not need to be made to protect the rest of us from your rude and selfish behavior?
and...
just like those that want more and tougher gun control laws because someone gets killed or hurt from a gun. It's not the gun that is causing it. It is a human being that is causing it. And additionally now the gov't wants to "require" everyone have health ins or be fined for not having it. Perhaps George Orwel was correct with his story of 1984.
The government is telling
The government is telling the tobacco companies to stop putting a chemical in their cigarette paper that speeds up the burning of the cigarette, something which helps the manufacturer sell more product and causes fires, and you believe you have lost some sort of right somewhere? Apparently you are living in a fog of smoke.
Don't worry...
mine have been doing this for about 3 months now.
I like it. Saves my cigarettes when I get overly absorbed in doing something while having a smoke lit. :)
McDonalds and Coca-Cola worse than smoking
I think smoking is getting a bad rap. I went to the mall today to pick up my wife. I usually go a little earlier to check out the hotties, but you know what, there were not hotties. There were a lot of obese people, and even worse, young obese people. This obesity thing I bet, I got no stats on this, is killing more people than smoking and just not their life but also their self-esteem. I can say at least with smoking, you make friends in the smoking area and its a good way to start talking to a hottie but being in the obese area, means less opportunity, less friends, more physocological problems, diabetes, and coke. How did we get to be the fattest nation on earth. Liberty - the right to choose cheap food 24/7 whenever we want. Its amazing, we put ages on alcohol but not on coca-cola which i am sure is causing childhood diabetes. and cheap cheeseburgers which is causing mal-nutrition. Look around, i think we have bigger problems than flammable cigarettes.