Careless smokers will have a new safeguard against accidentally starting a house fire, thanks to new fire-safe cigarettes going on the Texas market in the coming months.The product of 2007 legislation, cigarettes sold in Texas beginning on Jan. 1, 2009 will include bands of less porous paper that should result in a slower-burning cigarette that goes out by itself if left unattended.State Rep. Phil King, the Weatherford Republican who authored the fire-safe cigarette bill, is hoping for fewer accidental house fires. He believes the legislation will save lives."My local fire marshal contacted me about the fire-safe cigarette idea before last session and told me about how many lives it had saved in other states," King said in a prepared statement. "I started doing a little research on it and quickly realized that there were no added costs and it was easy to implement. I began wondering why we didn't already have this law in place."Cigarettes were responsible for approximately 500 residential house fires and 10 house-fire deaths in Texas in 2006, the latest year that figures were available, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. Wildfires caused by smokers also burned almost 50,000 acres of land that year, according to the Insurance Council of Texas, an industry trade group.The new cigarettes typically self-extinguish because they're wrapped in two or three bands of less porous paper. The bands act as "speed bumps" that slow down burning, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.At least 20 other states now have similar laws.
I always hear that the liberal democrats are responsable for nanny state issues like this. But when you take a good look, most of these intrusive regulations, laws and layers of government come from conservative republicans.
From Ft.Worth Star-Telegram. I always hear that the liberal democrats are responsable for nanny state issues like this. But when you take a good look, most of these intrusive regulations, laws and layers of government come from conservative republicans.
To the Congress of the United States:As concern with the condition of our physical environment has intensified, it has become increasingly clear that we need to know more about the total environment--land, water, and air. It also has become increasingly clear that only by reorganizing our Federal efforts can we develop that knowledge, and effectively ensure the protection, development and enhancement of the total environment itself.The Government's environmentally-related activities have grown up piecemeal over the years. The time has come to organize them rationally and systematically. As a major step in this direction, I am transmitting today two reorganization plans: one to establish an Environmental Protection Agency, and one to establish, with the Department of Commerce, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Richard NixonThe White HouseJuly 9, 1970
I guess that's your opinion. I have'nt seen anything to the contrary. Here's another off the top of my head... Selling public highways to foreign governments and turn them into toll roads...Rick Perry (R)
