Oregon stores disobey rule requiring fire-safe smokes
Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:19 AM PST
SALEM (AP) — Some Oregon stores have been selling cigarettes that don’t meet new state specifications for fire safety, state agents say.
The state fire marshal’s office has stockpiled 1,135 packs of cigarettes seized from five stores because they don’t comply with Oregon’s Jan. 1 law requiring cigarettes to be fire-safe. Oregon is among 22 states that require cigarettes be designed to go out when left unattended. It’s a means of reducing damage and death caused by fires. Typically, cigarette manufacturers wrap cigarettes with two or three thin bands of less-porous paper.