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If you didn’t already know, our cigarettes are changing (most have already changed.)  Take a look at your pack of cigarettes, find the UPC bar code on it and check to see if it has “FSC” written over it.  If it does, you have just bought yourself a pack of Firesafe cigarettes.  Most of the cigarettes in the U.S. are already changed, and there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it.  They are to prevent fires (go figure) by the cigarette self-extinguishing if it is not being smoked.  Basically, if you don’t smoke it, it will go out.  I think the idea is good, however the method, in my honest opinion, sucks.  There are a few differences I’ve noticed over the past 6 months.

Fire starting cigarette

That’s right, this thing starts fires.  I’m sure all you dedicated cancer stick loving fiends know that when you go to tap on your cigarette, that if you tap too hard the lit end (cherry) will pop off.  Well, this happens a lot more often with these new cigarettes.  For some reason it burns funny when exposed to wind, causing either the paper to burn before the tobacco, or vice-versa.

Scenario:  Your driving along, smokin’ a stick with the windows cracked about an inch.  You go to tap out your cig in the ash-tray and guess what happens?  The lit end pops off.  Where does it go?  Maybe if you’re lucky it will land straight into the ash-tray, maybe not (several times now has the lit end of my cigarette popped off onto myself, and my car floor.)  Will the cherry go out?  No, sorry.  It’s just the paper on the cigarette that has those bands to extinguish the cigarette, not the actual tobacco.  So your screwed, you try to put the cherry out before your car turns into a flaming ball from hell, causing you to crash, and die.

Can this happen?  I think it’s likely to happen.  Like I said I’ve already had close encounters dealing with a cherry popping off, it’s only a matter of time.

Taste

Who the hell do you think you are screwing with my cigarettes?  Where do you get off?  If I’m smoking cigarettes, I’m probably more likely to die from cancer than passing out, dropping a lit cigarette (starting a fire), and then burning in that fire (or inhaling too much of the ‘bad’ smoke), and die.  You’ve changed the taste of my cigarette, and don’t even try to deny it.  New Jersey switched over before Pennsylvania (PA is now FSC), and I had my share of both.  Damn right they taste different.  So let’s be honest, there’s a little more than 3 little bands in my cigarette.  I taste the different from start to finish, don’t play us for fools.

Toxins

Are they more harmful?  Do I care?  In all honesty, if you’re already smoking cigarettes you probably don’t give a shit whether a firesafe cigarette is going to do more harm to your body than a pre-FSC would.  To answer my question, no, I don’t care if they are more harmful.

Solution

There’s only one possible solution I could think of, choice.  Give us the choice to buy a fire safe cigarette.

References

Want to read more about how are our cigarettes are now a pain to smoke?  Sure…

Coalation for Fire-Safe Cigarettes

The Petition