Good Morning. Before you flick it out the window make sure it is extinguished! Do you realize how many highway fires a year are caused by smokers flicking their butts out of a moving vehicle? It might amaze you. I don’t smoke and find no urge to but my golfing buddy does and a handful of other friends of mine still smoke. I do not rag on them about it and think some day perhaps they will kick the habit but on my way into work today I witnessed a truck in front of me flicking his smoldering butt out the window and the sparks flashed like lightning bugs in the distance. Without doubt that cigarette would have caused a fire had it made it to the side of the road where dried grass and weeds awaited their ignition…I am not getting down on smokers nor am I up on a podium touting the use of such items. But, in today’s world we do not need extra cause for fires and damage. Check these stats out: SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Based on a worldwide study of smoking-related fire and disaster data, UC Davis epidemiologists show smoking is a leading cause of fires and death from fires globally, resulting in an estimated cost of nearly $7 billion in the United States and $27.2 billion worldwide in 1998. The study is published in the August issue of Preventive Medicine. Fires cause 1 percent of the global burden of disease and 300,000 deaths per year worldwide. Fire disasters destroy cities, families, workplaces, workers and wild lands and have an enormous impact on human health, the environment and society. Smoking causes an estimated 30 percent of fire deaths in the United States and 10 percent of fire deaths worldwide. Each year, over one billion smokers throughout the world light over 6 trillion cigarettes, creating a potential source of ignition from cigarette butts and from cigarette lighters and matches that fall into the hands of young children. In France, a single lighted cigarette thrown from a moving car in 1999 ignited a fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, a major thoroughfare between France and Italy, causing 39 deaths and over $1 billion in losses to the region. The Oakland Hills fire in California, in which a lit cigarette remains a suspected cause, left 10,000 homeless, destroyed nearly 4,000 dwellings and cost more than $1.5 billion. And in Texas City, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation blamed a cigarette for probably igniting an ammonium nitrate explosion in 1947, causing the worst industrial disaster death toll in U.S. history. The explosion caused nearly 600 deaths, 380 hospitalizations longer than two months, 4,100 casualties, and damage to more than 90 percent of the city’s buildings at a cost of more than $4 billion. So it is not just the US, nor France, nor anywhere… it’s world wide… I think smokers should just be a bit more careful is all, no laws need to be passed lord knows we have enough already and let alone another reason for someone to sue. But, my point is this, if you lite it up make the heck sure it is out when finished with it.
Oh well enough of the ramblings of a non smoker. Have a wonderful day.
A huge hug and much along the lines of Pat giving’s.
Mart
