Where there is no smoke, there is no fire.That’s why an Aurora state senator plans to introduce a bill that would require all cigarettes sold in Colorado to be self-extinguishing.

Although they’re called smokeless cigarettes, in reality they are cigarettes that stop burning if smokers stop puffing.

Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, wants Colorado to join 22 other states that have passed legislation requiring the sale of such cigarettes to prevent the leading cause of house fire deaths.

“My mom and dad smoked so I know how people easily fall asleep with a cigarette still smoldering,” Hagedorn said Wednesday. “I became intrigued with the technology last summer. It has the tremendous potential of saving lives.”

Phillip Morris USA, one the nation’s largest manufactures of tobacco products, hasn’t actively opposed the passage of such state laws.

Company spokesman, Bill Phelps, said Phillip Morris supports federal legislation that would establish uniform standards requiring the sale of fire-safe cigarettes rather than a patchwork of state laws that may be difficult to implement and enforce.

“This would ensure that all manufactures and importers - regardless of size and location - would be required to satisfy the same standard,” the company says on its Web site.

The National Fire Protection Association is pushing legislation nationwide to require the sale of fire-safe cigarettes.

In 2004, New York became the first state to enact such a law.

Last year alone, 16 states, including Utah, Oregon, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Kentucky, passed laws requiring the sale of fire-safe cigarettes.

“This is foremost a public safety issue,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of the association. “Cigarettes are the leading cause of house fire deaths in the U.S. They kill on average 700 to 900 people each year.”

Nationwide, nearly half the victims in fatal house fires were sleeping, said Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Safety. “The technology is there to utilize,” he said. “It decreases the probability of a fire started by a cigarette from occurring.”

SALEM, Ore. - Tobacco interests have gone to court in a bid to block a statewide vote this fall on a cigarette tax increase to pay for children’s health insurance.

A lawsuit filed in Marion County Circuit Court this week maintains that Measure 50, which would boost the cigarette tax by 84.5 cents a pack, violates the state constitution in several ways.

Among other things, the lawsuit says the measure makes three “unrelated” changes to the constitution with separate taxes on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products such as smokeless tobacco.

It also says the measure is “an unprecedented and unconstitutional gambit” to get around the requirement that tax increases be approved by three-fifths majorities of the House and Senate.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature placed the cigarette tax on the Nov. 6 ballot as a constitutional amendment after lawmakers couldn’t muster enough GOP votes to enact it outright.

The lawsuit was filed by Portland lawyer James Dumas on behalf of state Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, and a group of tobacco users and retailers.

Dumas, who defended tobacco maker Philip Morris in a lawsuit over the 1999 death of a Salem woman, has asked the Marion County court for an expedited hearing of the Measure 50 challenge.

Cathy Kaufman, a spokeswoman for Healthy Kids Oregon, a group that is advocating for the passage of the cigarette tax, dismissed the lawsuit as, “further proof that big tobacco will do anything, say anything and pay anything to protect their profits even if it is at the expense of Oregon’s kids.”

Kaufman said tobacco companies have gone to court in at least five states since 2001 to block tobacco-related measures, and that none of those attempts had been successful.

Lisa Gilliam, a spokesman for a group called Stop the Measure 50 Tax that’s being primarily funded by Philip Morris, said her organization, “agrees with the basic tenets of the lawsuit.”

“We believe the measure is flawed, and sets a dangerous constitutional precedent,” she said.

The cigarette tax hike, which is strongly backed by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, would raise an estimated $153 million for the current two-year budget, most of it to provide health care for more than 100,000 Oregon children.

Opponents said measure is unfair to smokers and it’s inappropriate to write such a tax into the state constitution.

Associated Press writer Julia Silverman in Portland contributed to this report.

LONDON - All packets of cigarettes and other tobacco products sold in Britain will have to feature graphic photographs showing the effects of smoking from next year, government ministers said today.

The move was unveiled by Health Secretary Alan Johnson, who said it would shock more people into quitting, while a spokeswoman for the Department of Health confirmed it came about following a European directive in 2001. (more…)

DENVER - Smokers in Colorado would have a new product to buy if some state lawmakers have their way.

Efforts are under way to require the sale of fire-safe cigarettes throughout the state in an effort to cut down on the fires which kill the most people nationwide every year, according to the National Fire Protection Agency.

That group is the leading advocate for self-extinguishing cigarettes nationwide.

Supporters of the proposal say two separate fires in Denver retirement homes this past weekend, likely caused by cigarettes, provide further evidence Colorado should require the sale of fire-safe cigarettes. Three people were injured in one of those fires, one critically. (more…)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Aug. 27 U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton called for U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco and a national war on cancer.

The New York Democrat and presidential candidate made the remarks Monday at the Livestrong Presidential Cancer Form in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Clinton urged “a much more aggressive outreach. That’s why I favor the FDA being able to regulate advertising about nicotine and tobacco products. And we are going to push through, I hope, a bill to get that done.

(more…)

A 25-year-old man was shot on Saturday night, apparently for not having any cigarettes. He was found by a school in Saltsjö-Boo, east of Stockholm.

“We have found a person and he has been shot in the shoulder,” said Jens Mårtensson, duty officer at Stockholm police According to the injured man, a stranger approached him and asked if he had any cigarettes. When he replied that he did not, the man produced a gun and shot him.

A number of police units spent the night searching the area with dogs but they found no trace of the attacker.

The man who was shot was taken to hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The head of public policy for Southern Baptists says religious leaders have a moral duty to urge Congress to let the Food and Drug Administration regulate cigarettes.

Dr. Richard Land and leaders of other religious denominations gathered at a Nashville church Tuesday to urge members of the Tennessee congressional delegation to support legislation.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act would allow the FDA to restrict tobacco ads, regulate warning labels, remove hazardous ingredients or reduce cigarettes’ nicotine levels.

Land said, “It is morally wrong to know the good that should be done and not to do it.”

Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups have banded together across the country as part of the Faith United Against Tobacco campaign since 2002 to support regulation of smoking.