Why state wants fire-safe cigarettes

Relaxation gives way to sleep and the cigarettes falls, not onto the person but onto the bed.
Jerry Lojka, fire marshal for the Midwest City Fire Department, has investigated this and other fatal scenarios in the last six or seven years where a person died as because of a fire caused by an unattended cigarette.
That's why he coordinated support for legislation requiring the sale of fire-safe cigarettes .
These cigarettes are designed to stop burning at one of several bands if the cigarette is left unattended.
House Bill 3341, authored by Rep. Mike Thompson, R-Oklahoma City, passed unanimously in the Senate and the House and has been signed by Gov. Brad Henry.
Retailers will be required to sell only "fire-safe” cigarettes, or cigarettes that contain the bands that automatically extinguish a cigarette that is left unattended.

Other states have passed laws yet to go into effect. Oklahoma is the 18th state having passed such a law that is yet to take effect.
"We will see it save lives, there's no doubt about it,” Lojka said.
The rest of the scenario
A cigarette on the bed unchecked for 10 to 12 minutes can create "enough heat that it will allow it to smolder,” Lojka said.
"And this process can take two hours or more for it to go from smoldering to a full-blown fire,” he adds.
If the smoke detector doesn't go off, or if it doesn't wake the person, a great deal of smoke is generated before the flames erupt.
What are the bands expected to do?
Tobacco companies have to put a band 15 mm from the lighted end of the cigarette and another band 10 mm from the labeled end of the cigarette.
"So what happens is if somebody lights up and they take a couple of drags,” he said. But if they fall asleep, "Five to seven minutes later it reaches that second band and the cigarette goes out,” he said.
Lojka hopes with the new cigarettes, the scenario will change to something like this: A person goes to bed, falls asleep, the cigarette falls onto the bed and one of the bands causes the cigarette to stop burning.