“Hello! I’m here to ask for approval for an improvement to home heaters! My improvement will emit between 11 and 14% more poisonous gasses and cause 50% more fires than the current models, however they will also smell bad, thus encouraging citizens to use them less because of the stink and thereby conserve energy!”

Think it’d fly?

– MJM

“that there were 5.36 fires per 10,000 smokers in the four years preceding 2004 and 5.69 in the four years afterwards. In 2008, however, there were 6.37 fires per 10,000 smokers, meaning that the number of smoking-related fires have actually increased since the introduction of RIP cigarettes, which is even more troubling when one considers the smoking rate dropped from 21.6% in 2003 to 16.8% in 2008.”

I.E. in the 8 years prior to FSCs there were an average of about 5.5 fires/10k smokers while in the year after FSCs that number jumped to about 6.4: a 16% increase. Given the drop in smoking rates the “After FSC” figure, if there had been NO change to FSCs SHOULD have been 16.8/21.6 (78%) of 5.5: i.e. about 4.3.

In reality, if we looked at the numbers as factual representations of cause and effect (which Antismokers usually love to do) and compared the expected 4.3 figure to the actual 6.4 figure, we could argue that FSCs “caused” an increase of roughly 50% in the number of fires over what would be expected.

Imagine if Philip Morris or BAT came out with a new cigarette that had a GREAT taste and marketed it like mad and smokers bought it in droves and then it was discovered that the rate of fires increased by 50% because of the chemicals they’d added to produce that “GREAT taste.”

Can you imagine the uproar? The demands for criminal prosecution? The bankrupting of the companies by lawsuits?

And yet, when the government does it at the behest of Antismokers who knew that the resulting products would be distasteful to smokers and expensive/difficult for the tobacco companies, the change goes through and is treated as sacrosanct and beyond criticism.

And that’s even if one totally ignores the 20,000+ health complaints about the new cigarettes.

And government does nothing — because the antismoking lobby is simply too powerful to confront politically.

Sad.

Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains”

“Safer Communities Directorate
Fire and Rescue Services Division
Steven Torrie QFSM, Head of Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit
T: 0131-244 2342 F: 0131-244 2564
E: steven.torrie@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Chief Fire Officers (Scotland)

28 July 2011
Dear Chief Officer
DEAR CHIEF OFFICER (SCOTLAND) LETTER 10/2011
REDUCED IGNITION PROPENSITY (RIP) CIGARETTES – UPDATE
Introduction
1.
Dear Chief Officer (Scotland) Letter 15/2010 – Reduced Ignition Propensity Cigarettes Update, provided an update on the new Standard and Test Method for RIP cigarettes. I am now in a position to provide you with a further update on the good progress which has been made on this issue.
Background
2.
CEN (the EU standards making body) published the Safety Standard and Test Method on 17 November 2010, with Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) Referencing planned for 12 months from that date. This period is to allow manufacturers sufficient time to change the necessary manufacturing process to meet the new standard. The EU has said that the Standard will be referred to the OJEU on 17 November 2011. In parallel, the British Standards Institution (BSI) published the equivalent BS EN 16156 (Cigarettes Assessment of the ignition propensity) on 31 December 2010.

Current Update
3.
Following the publication of both the CEN and BSI standard, policy colleagues in the UK Government and Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser in England (CFRA) have continued dialogue with the main UK tobacco manufacturers to ensure they have in hand plans to comply with the Standard. These meetings have been very positive and the manufacturers are on track to deliver compliance for all cigarette products at point of manufacture in advance of the publication of the Reference Standard on 17 November 2011.

4.
The tobacco industry have advised that although every effort would be made to ensure there is ‘sell through’ of product lines before the Reference Standard takes effect, it may not be possible to guarantee all retailers stock would be compliant by the Reference date. The industry is working with their sales teams to inform retailers of the incoming standard, and the importance of ensuring that as much non-compliant stock is sold through by 17 November 2011.
5.
The industry expects to have achieved a complete sell through of non-compliant products by the end of summer 2012.
6.
My colleagues in CFRA are working closely with the General Product Safety and Better Regulation teams at the department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to understand how the new Reference Standard will be implemented. BIS’s standard practice is to communicate the existence of new standards through the Trading Standards Interlink to Local Authority Trading Standards departments on the date they take effect. This will confirm the UK Government’s expectation that all cigarettes sold in the UK and EU will comply with the new safety standard.
7.
As is normal with Reference Standards, this will be a light touch. BIS will not instruct nor expect Trading Standards to enforce the standard. It will be a matter for local Trading Standards to determine their role in any monitoring and enforcement activity.

Conclusion
8.
I would ask that you note the further good progress on this important issue and I will keep you informed of any future developments.
Yours sincerely
STEVEN TORRIE
Head of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit