Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T05:24:32.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fires, Cigarettes and Advocacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Andrew McGuire
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

America is burning at a faster rate than any other industrialized nation. Approximately 2.3 million fires costing $40 billion were reported in 1984. Over 5,400 American citizens are killed as a result of these fires and an estimated 130,000 are seriously injured. The leading cause of fire death and injury is cigarette initiated fires with the 1984 toll being 1,570 deaths and 7,000 serious injuries.’ Property damage alone totals over $390 million.

These numbers do not portray the human devastation caused by fires. No other injury causes more pain and suffering. Movies, television and radio have rarely documented the emotional and physical sequelae of a severe burn injury. One day's headline proclaims the devastation of a house fire, and then the story disappears at the point when the survivors begin the agonizing process of healing. The daily routine of burn treatment in America's burn centers is hidden from public view.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring 1989 , pp. 73 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Karter, M.J., “Fire Loss in the United States during 1984”, Fire Journal 79, September, 1985, 15; Washburn, A.E. Harlow, D.W. Fahy, R.F., “U.S. Fire Fighter Deaths”, Fire Command 52, June, 1985, 21; death and injury estimates based on J.R. Hall, Jr., “The Total Cost of Fire in the USA,” Fire Journal 80, May 1986, 83.Google Scholar
Hall, J.R. Jr., “Expected Changes in Fire Damages from Reducing Cigarette Ignition Propensity,” Report No. 5, Technical Study Group, Cigarette Safety Act of 1984, 1987.Google Scholar
DeFrancesco, S. and McGuire, A., “The Fire-Safe Cigarette Campaign”, Journal of Public Health Policy 6:3, September 1985, 340–48.Google Scholar
Boston Herald American, March 31, 1932.Google Scholar
The Reader's Digest, September 1950.Google Scholar
Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA, “Memorandum to Furniture Flammability Committee on the Reduction of the Ignition Hazards of Cigarettes,” May 9, 1974.Google Scholar
McCormack, J.A. and Diamant, G.H., “Self-Extinguishing Cigarette Study,” Laboratory Reports Nos. 2442–79 and 2443–79, State of California Dept. of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings, Nov. 13, 1979, 1–3.Google Scholar
Technical Study Group Final Report, “Toward a Less Fire Prone Cigarette,” 1.Google Scholar
Id.: 9.Google Scholar
Ibid.Google Scholar
Id.: 8.Google Scholar
Id.: 15.Google Scholar
HR 4497, Fire Safe Implementation Act of 1988, Rep. Rick Boucher, 5.Google Scholar