Tobacco Documents Online

PHILIP MORRIS U. S. A. : INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE i; RICRMDMD. Y1R61N11 To: Dr. R. B. Seligman Date: October 26, 1976 Fron: ..: W. F. . Gannon V $ubJeet: . Visit of Dr. Joseph Clark A n DV At the request of Mr. Robert E. Bateman, I spent several hours on Monday, October 25, 1976, talking with Dr. Joseph Clark, Associate Administrator of the ? . Rational Fire Prevention and Control Administration (Bnited States Department of Commerce). Dr. Clark was ~~ in Richmond to address a group.of safety and fire Y' prevention engineers. ,: .:, . .: - . . . ~ 4 A r~ Several years ago, Mr. Horace Kornegay, President of the Tobacco Institute, discussed with the President of Plastics Engineers Society the problems associated with cigarettes causing fires in homes. To date, no indications of activity from the tobacco industry have been evidenced; therefore, Dr. Clark took this opportunity to visit the Research Center to elicit interest in this problem from Philip Morris. According to Dr. Clark, there are five to six thousand deaths per year in the United States which can be directly attributed to careless disposal of cigarettes,`' i thus leading to_ignition of furniture, bedding, or clothing.` The problem stems mainly from the fact that a discarded : cigarette which falls on a chair or sofa will ultimately roll into a crevice and eventually cause ignition of.the . .upholstered piece. It has been shown that the reflected radiation from several sides of a piece of furniture will lead to ignition; whereas, if a cigarette lies on a flat cushion, the cigarette will eventually go out . and no fire will ensue. If a cigarette is covered on top and/or bottom by a piece of paper or a sheet, the reflected heat will char through these materials and CO cause ignition of the upholstered furniture. .~ ~= 0

Another point worth noting is that Dr. Clark •-• Due to the severity of the problem, and the has on developments of this nature. to check his files and send to me any information that he how the cigarette worked and its ultimate fate. He volunteered. of furniture. Dr. Clark was unsure of the details of which would not cause ignition of an upholstered piece -°ago two inventors named Coan (sic), demonstrated a cigarette this field. He cited one example where several years but that we would check the literature for activity in ' that our efforts in this area have been at a moderate level of cigarettes because of the fire hazard. I told Dr. Clark that at least one question will occur concerning banning . stated that at each of his speaking engagements, he knows our literature survey. Your comments on this situation in the past. I will keep you apprised of the results of while to look into this matter more deeply than we have concomitant bad publicity, I feel that it would be worth- would be appreciated.