The impact of state fire safe cigarette policies on fire fatalities, injuries, and incidents

Authors

  • David H. Folz, PhD
  • Chris Shults, PhD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.2017.0346

Keywords:

fire safety, state policy, evaluation

Abstract

Cigarettes are a leading cause of civilian deaths in home fires. Over the last decade, state fire service leaders and allied interest groups succeeded in persuading state lawmakers to require manufacturers to sell only low-ignition strength or “fire safe” cigarettes as a strategy to reduce these fatalities and the injuries and losses that stem from them. This article examines whether the states’ fire safe cigarette laws actually helped to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce the incidence of home fires ignited by cigarettes left unattended by smokers. Controlling for the effects of key demographic, social, economic, and housing variables, this study finds that the states’ fire-safe cigarette policies had significant impacts on reducing the rate of smoking-related civilian fire deaths and the incidence of fires started by tobacco products. The findings also suggest that the states’ fire safe cigarette policies may have helped to reduce the rate of smoking-related fire injuries. The study shows that collective actions by leaders in the fire service across the states can result in meaningful policy change that protects lives and advances public safety even when a political consensus for action is absent at the national level.

Author Biographies

David H. Folz, PhD

Professor and Director, University of Tennessee Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) Program, Knoxville, Tennessee

Chris Shults, PhD

Training Manager / Grants and Training Specialist UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service, Knoxville, Tennessee

References

Hall JR: (2013). “The Smoking-Material Fire Problem.” National Fire Protection Association. Available at http://www.nfpa.org/newsand-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/fire-causes/smoking-materials. Accessed August 1, 2013.

United States Fire Administration: (2016a). Residential building Smoking Fire Trends Available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/res_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf. Accessed December 12, 2016.

Ahrens M: (2011). Home structure fires. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes: (2015). History. Available at http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/causes/smoking/coalition-for-fire-safe-cigarettes/history. Accessed: September 21, 2015.

Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes: (2016). Model legislation. Available at http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/causes/smoking/coalition-for-fire-safe-cigarettes/model-legislation. Accessed: August 23, 2016.

Hall JR: (2012). The smoking-material fire problem. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

West G: TN State Fire Marshal. personal communication, March 15, 2011.

Alpert H: (2007). Regulating cigarettes for fire safety. St. Paul, MN: Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.

Seaman A: (2009, January 2). States push fire-safe cigarettes. USA Today. Available at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-01-02-cigarettes_N.htm. Accessed August 4, 2013.

United States Fire Administration (USFA): (2016). USFA national fire incident reporting system 5.0, complete reference guide. Emmetsburg, MD: USFA. Available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/nfirs/NFIRS_Complete_Reference_Guide_2015.pdf. Accessed September 15, 2013.

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): (2014). “How States are Implementing the Legislation.” Available at http://www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/top-causes-of-fire/smoking/coalition-for-fire-safe-cigarettes/how-states-are-implementing-thelegislation. Accessed June 20, 2012.

Houston D, Richardson L: Motorcyclist fatality rates and mandatory helmet-use laws. Accident Anal Prev. 2008; 40: 200-208.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) 2013: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System- Annual Survey Data. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/annual_data/annual_data.htm. Accessed June 15, 2013.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) 2012: Methodologic Changes in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2011 and Potential Effects on Prevalence Estimates. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/surveillancepractice/reports/brfss/brfss.html. Accessed February 2, 2013.

Roth P: Missing data: A conceptual review for applied psychologists. Personnel Psychol. 1994; 47: 537-560.

Schafer J, Graham J: Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychol Methods. 2002; 7(2): 147-177.

Eisenberg E: Fire deaths in the United States: How best to keep reducing them. Fire Protect Engineer. 2005; 25: 6-15.

Yau RK, Marshall SW: Association between fire-safe cigarette legislation and residential fire deaths in the United States. Injury Epidemiology 2014, 1:10. Available at http://www.injepijournal.com/content/1/1/10. Accessed November 24, 2017.

United States (US) Census: (2012). American fact finder. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Available at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml. Accessed February 12, 2012.

Wooldridge J: Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010.

Park H: (2011). Practical guides to panel data modeling: A step by step analysis using Stata. Available at http://www.iuj.ac.jp/faculty/kucc625/method/panel/panel_iuj.pdf. Accessed February 9, 2014.

Beck N, Katz J: What to do (and not to do) with time-series cross-section data. Am Polit Sci Rev. 1995; 89: 634-647.

Torres-Reyna, Oscar: 2007. “Panel Data Analysis Fixed and Random Effects (Using Stata 10.x). (PowerPoint Slides). Available at http://www.princeton.edu/∼otorres/Panel101.pdf. Accessed January 29, 2014.

Kennedy P: A Guide to Econometrics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.

Drukker D: Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models. Stata J. 2003; 3(2): 168-177.

Hannon L, Shai D: The truly disadvantaged and the structural covariates of fire death rates. Social Sciences Journal 2003; 40: 129-136.

Garbacz C. Thompson HR: Smoke Detector Effectiveness And The Value Of Saving A Life, Economics Letters. 2007; 31, 281-286.

O’Connor R, Fix B, Hammond D, et al.: The impact of reduced ignition propensity regulation on smoking behavior in a cohort of Ontario smokers. Injury Prev. 2010; 16: 420-422.

Diekman S, Ballesteros M, Berger L, et al.: Ecological level analysis of the relationship between smoking and residential-fire mortality. Injury Prev. 2008; 14: 228-231.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP): (2013a). National Health Interview Survey. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/tobacco/tobacco_glossary.htm. Accessed June 15, 2013.

Ahrens M: Home Fires involving cooking equipment. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 2012.

Anderson A, Ezekoye O: A comparative study assessing factors that influence home fire casualties and fatalities using state fire incident data. J Fire Protect Engineer. 2013; 23: 51-75.

Evarts B: Home fires that began with mattresses and bedding. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 2011.

Karter MJ Jr: (2012, September/October). Fire loss in the United States during 2011. NFPA J. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 2012. Available at http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/publications/nfpa-journal/2012/septemberoctober-2012/features/fire-loss-in-the-united-states-during-2011. Accessed December 26, 2012.

Waugh WL Jr, Hy RJ: Handbook of Emergency Management: Programs and Policies dealing with Major Hazards and Disasters. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Waugh WL Jr, Tierney K (Eds.): Emergency Management: Principles and Practice for Local Government (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association, 2007.

Coe C: Handbook of Urban Services: A Basic Guide for Local Government. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 2009.

General Accountability Office (GAO): (2012, April 18). Tobacco taxes: Large disparities in rates for smoking products trigger significant market shifts to avoid higher taxes (GAO Report 12-475). Available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/590192.pdf. Accessed: July 1, 2013.

Svara J: Facilitative Leadership in Local Government: Lesson from Successful Mayors and Chairpersons. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Simon H: Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-making Processes in Administrative Organizations (4th ed.). New York: Free Press, 1997.

Lee M: The return of public relations to the public administration curriculum? J Public Affairs Educ. 2009; 15(4): 515-533.

Ammons D: Leading Performance Management in Local Government. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Publications, 2008.

Esterl M: (2012, March 16). “Roll your own” cigarette shops take fire. Wall Street J. Available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303863404577285694208319820.html. Accessed July 20, 2012.

Morris E: (2012, July 5). Roll-your-own cigarette stores going up in smoke. Chicago Sun-Times. Available at http://www.suntimes.com/business/13589276-420/roll-your-own-cigarette-stores-goingup-in-smoke.html. Accessed September 16, 2012.

Burke M: (2012, July 14). New law cripples roll-your-own cigarette shops. J Times. Available at http://journaltimes.com/news/local/new-law-cripples-roll-your-own-cigarette-shops/article_20dce5fecd3b-11e1-9bc8-0019bb2963f4.html. Accessed June 20, 2013.

Karuschak B: (2012, July 6). Roll-your-own cigarette operations to be snuffed out. Las Vegas Rev J. Available at http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/roll-your-own-cigarette-operations-besnuffed-out. Accessed July 24, 2013.

Rhodes A, Reinholtd S: Beyond technology: A holistic approach to reducing residential fire fatalities. Austral J Emerg Manag. 1998; 13(1): 39-44.

Published

11/01/2017

How to Cite

Folz, PhD, D. H., and C. Shults, PhD. “The Impact of State Fire Safe Cigarette Policies on Fire Fatalities, Injuries, and Incidents”. Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 15, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 379-8, doi:10.5055/jem.2017.0346.