Starting in January 2009 Australia may require all cigarettes manufactured and sold throughout Australia to be self-extinguishing..

March 27, 2008 - Starting in January 2009 Australia may require all cigarettes manufactured and sold throughout Australia to be self-extinguishing.. A meeting of emergency services ministers in Canberra (the capital city of the Commonwealth of Australia) on Wednesday (3/26/2008) deliberated upon the need for introducing "fire-proof" cigarettes that get extinguished on their own as the smoker drops the butt, a measure that may help reduce the risk of fires in homes and the bush. New South Wales (NSW) Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees moved the resolution to make the reduced fire risk (RFR) cigarettes, mandatory under the Trade Practices Act as early as next year. "Every day's delay is another day we live with the risk that someone will be killed or injured or homes or bushland destroyed because cigarettes keep burning when they are dropped or thrown from a car window," he added. Each year, around 4500 fires are caused by cigarette ignitions in Australia. Fires, directly attributed to cigarettes, claimed about 65 lives between 2000 and 2005. A spokesman for the Australian arm of British American Tobacco (BAT) said the company was broadly supportive of the aim. "BAT supports the goal of reducing the incidents of fires caused by the careless disposal of lit cigarettes," spokesman Bede Fennell. "It is important, however, that smokers are aware that cigarettes produced to meet the proposed reduced-fire risk standard are not fire safe and all lit cigarettes should be carefully disposed of." Liggett Tobacco, the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States, will convert production to make all of their cigarette brands fire-standards-compliant nationwide.Why can't BAT do the same for the Commonwealth of Australia?? ( Govts seek self-extinguishing cigarettesa, World News Australia, Wednesday, 26 March, 2008) See related Newsbriefs: August 28, 2007, August 27, 2007, July 20, 2007, June 23, 2007 and April 5, 2007. Click on image to enlarge..(TobaccoWatch.org)