摘要：Objectives. We evaluated the Massachusetts Fire Safe Cigarette Law’s (FSCL’s) effectiveness in preventing residential fires. Methods. We examined unintentional residential fires reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System from 2004 to 2010. We analyzed FSCL effect on the likelihood of cigarette- versus noncigarette-caused fires and effect modification by fire scenario factors by using an interrupted time series regression model. We analyzed the effect of FSCL on monthly fire rates with Poisson regression. Results. Cigarettes caused 1629 unintentional residential fires during the study period. The FSCL was associated with a 28% (95% confidence interval = 12%, 41%) reduction in the odds of cigarette- versus noncigarette-caused fires, although not in analyses restricted to casualty fires, with smaller sample size. The largest reductions were among fires in which human factors were involved; that were first ignited on furniture, bedding, or soft goods; that occurred in living areas; or that occurred in the summer or winter. Conclusions. The FSCL appears to have decreased the likelihood of cigarette-caused residential fires, particularly in scenarios for which the ignition propensity standard was developed. Current standards should be adopted, and the need for strengthening should be considered. Approximately 360 900 residential building fires are reported each year in the United States, resulting in an estimated 2495 deaths, 13 250 injuries, and $7 billion in property losses. 1 The number of fatalities and injuries caused by residential fires is gradually decreasing, but many residential fires caused by cigarettes remain preventable and continue to pose a significant public health problem. 2 Cigarettes were responsible for 90 800 fires, 610 civilian deaths, 1570 civilian injuries, and $633 million in direct property damages and other economic loss in the United States in 2010, 3 and account for an estimated 10% of all fire fatalities worldwide. 4 Furthermore, 1 in 4 deaths by cigarette-caused fires is not of the smokers themselves. 5 Thirty-four percent are children of the smokers, 25% are neighbors or friends, 14% are spouses or partners, and 13% are the parents. Persons at increased risk include children aged 4 years and younger 6,7 and adults aged 65 years and older, 6,7 African Americans and Native Americans, 6,7 the poorest of Americans, 7,8 persons living in rural areas 7,9 or in manufactured homes or substandard housing, 10,11 and responding firefighters. 2 As early as 1929, Rep Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts called for the National Bureau of Standards to develop technology for a “self-snubbing” cigarette. 12 The Bureau developed such a cigarette, but stated that a manufacturer would have to adopt it. 13 Later, in 1947, the National Fire Protection Association called on cigarette manufacturers to take some responsibility for the problem of cigarette-ignited fires 14 ; however, tobacco manufacturers did not respond publicly to either of these appeals. Instead, they opposed legislative efforts to regulate cigarette ignition propensity, while conducting extensive cigarette ignition propensity research and development since the early 1970s. 15 The Cigarette Safety Act of 1984 16 required the creation of an advisory group, which issued a final report in 1987 concluding that developing a cigarette with minimum ignition propensity was technically, economically, and commercially feasible. 17 Subsequently, the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed standards for cigarette ignition propensity testing 18–21 as charged by the Fire Safe Cigarette Act of 1990. 22 This testing protocol, presently known as the ASTM E2187-04 Standard Test Method of Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes, 23 requires observing a lit cigarette placed on 10 layers of standard filter paper in a draft-free environment. 23 A brand is in compliance with the regulation if no more than 25% of cigarettes tested in a trial exhibit burn through their full tobacco column lengths. The State of New York in 2004 15,24,25 was the first jurisdiction to implement cigarette ignition propensity regulations using this standard, which has now been adopted by all 50 US states as well as in Canada, Australia, Finland, South Africa, and the European Union. 26–30 Massachusetts implemented its Fire Safe Cigarette Law (FSCL) on January 1, 2008. In the present study, we utilized data from the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), a comprehensive, standardized fire incidence reporting system maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services. The purpose was to evaluate the Massachusetts FSCL’s effectiveness in reducing cigarette-caused fires and associated casualties and to determine whether effectiveness has differed by ignition substrate, origin of fire, or human, temporal, or geographic factors.
