Missouri Fire-Safe Cigarette Law Set to Begin

This weekend, Missouri will join dozens of other states, including Kansas, that have passed fire-safe cigarette laws, requiring stores to sell only self-extinguishing cigarettes.

Metro tobacco retailers say that, for the most part, they will be unphased by the new law since many cigarette makers are already in compliance with the new regulations. But despite the new fire-safe cigarettes, fire officials say that it's still important for smokers to be careful when they light up.

Curt Deibel of Deibel's Sportsman Gallery on the Plaza says that the cigarettes he sells have long been fire-safe.

"Well the reality of it is that the market place had already adjusted," said Deibel. "As soon as the law was imminent then the manufacturers started changing their product over. We saw it every bit of a year ago."

Jason Ballou, operations manager at Main Street Tobacco and Gifts, says that the new laws have been a long time coming.

"It's actually been over the course of probably five years, as it's kind of spread from the east and west coast," said Ballou.

The papers in the fire-safe cigarettes are designed to let the cigarette go out on it's own when it's not being smoked. The idea behind the cigarettes is to prevent devastating, and sometimes deadly, fires.

Trevor Miller of the Overland Park Fire Department says that there have been 12 cigarette related fires in the city in 2010, with the last four happening in the last two months. Fire safe cigarettes are already being sold in Kansas, but Miller says it's too soon to know how effective they are in preventing fires. That's why he says that you still need to be careful.

"They do say they are fire resistent, but they're not fire proof, and we have had one fire that's been related to that," said Miller, who says that if you're having a New Years party and your guests smoke, you should set out buckets of sand or water ahead of time. "Dispose of it in a proper manor by putting it in a bucket that either has sand or water. But just flicking it out on the ground or next to the house by the bushes where there's mulch, or on a deck, is where our fires are caused."