As evidence of health risks piled up, makers of flame retardants created a phony consumer watchdog that misled lawmakers and the public by stoking the fear of fire.
Regulators have allowed generation after generation of flame retardants onto the market without thoroughly assessing the health risks. One chemical touted as safe is now turning up in wildlife around the world.
These records help illustrate the cigarette industry’s sophisticated campaign to befriend firefighting officials and deflect controversy over cigarette fires. By fending off requirements for “fire-safe” cigarettes and refocusing attention on flammable furniture, Big Tobacco helped fuel the widespread use of flame retardants in upholstered couches and chairs.
A Philip Morris researcher traces the earliest calls for fire-safe cigarettes to the 1920s. The company didn’t introduce a self-extinguishing cigarette until 2000.
Big Tobacco’s public relations consultant Burson-Marsteller warns in 1980 that “sales could be dramatically affected” if fire-safe cigarette laws pass.
Tobacco executives had a two-pronged defense — insisting they couldn’t make a fire-safe cigarette and shifting the focus to the furniture that burned — but executives voice concern that they were failing to combat “fire scarred victims.”
The consulting company TriData suggests that establishing a fire safety program would improve tobacco’s image and “provide a strong base from which to present industry views.”
Fire-safety groups courted by Big Tobacco became allies in the industry’s fight against laws on fire-safe cigarettes. So successful was the strategy that a Philip Morris executive cites it as an example of how to neutralize enemies.
Peter Sparber, a former Tobacco Institute executive, helps organize the National Association of State Fire Marshals and bills the Tobacco Institute $200 an hour for what the marshals thought was volunteer work. The marshals shared a Washington office with Sparber and put him on the organization’s letterhead.
Sparber helps the National Association of State Fire Marshals ask the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for national rules requiring flame-retardant furniture.
The National Association of State Fire Marshals’ petition to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for flame-retardant furniture plays a key role in Big Tobacco’s efforts to delay rules requiring fire-safe cigarettes by shifting focus to the furniture fueling fires rather than the cigarettes that were sparking the blazes.
