Study Shows Smoking Is A Leading Cause Of Fire Disaster And Death Worldwide, Costing Over $27 Billion Yearly

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 wildlands 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 cityÕs buildings at a cost of more than $4 billion.

"Other studies have estimated the total cost of fires at about 1 percent of the gross domestic product of the United Kingdom, Japan, and virtually all of the 14 other countries with available statistics," says Bruce Leistikow, a physician and assistant professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. "Yet no one has estimated the impact of smoking on global fire costs, cigarette lighter and match fires, fire-fighting costs, or fire/explosion disasters.

"For example, U.S. estimates of fire costs from smoking have not included any of the $90 to 140 billion a year spent on fire protection efforts, such as fire fighting services and fireproofing measures, or the variety of costs related to accidental fires created by children playing with cigarette lighters or matches. Yet researchers recognize that the homes of smokers with small children are those at greatest risk for cigarette lighter fires. Our study addresses these important factors in U.S. and global cost estimates of smoking-related fires to provide a more complete accounting of smoking's enormous impact."

To estimate the total cost of fires from smoking, UC Davis epidemiologists analyzed reports of smoking-related fires and fire disasters throughout much of the world to tabulate and summarize total fire number, injury, death, and property loss data. They compared these tolls to U.S. fire, burn and fire death rates per billion cigarettes extrapolated globally. To estimate the cost of smoking-attributable lighter or match fires accidentally started by children under the age of 10, the researchers assessed the smoking-attributable percentage of all cigarette lighters and matches used.

Some 2 million fires occur each year in the United States alone. These fires result in about 5,000 deaths, 54,000 hospitalizations and 1.4 million injuries. The overall cost of fire in the United States, which has been estimated at up to $200 billion a year, represents 1 to 2 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Of these U.S. fires, children under the age of 10 with access to cigarette lighters and matches cause about 100,000 fires, 300 to 400 child deaths, and 11 percent of all injuries in reported fires each year. Globally, cigarette lights cause an estimated one million fires started by children.

"Stopping smoking can significantly reduce the devastation, injury and cost caused by fire,"says Leistikow. "Two-thirds of all U.S. reductions in fire fatalities related to smoking from 1984 to 1995 were attributed to reductions in cigarette consumption. Reducing smoking would lower its huge impact on fire injury, fire control costs and the 4 million deaths each year that occur from nonfire-related smoking disease. Policymakers, smokers, families and the public should have the opportunity to consider measures to reduce their burdens from smoking, including smoking-caused fires and the resulting burns, death, disasters and costs."

A free abstract and full copy of the article for subscribers should be available by August 4 at http://www.idealibrary.com/servlet/useragent?func=showAllIssues&curIssueID=pmed

This research was supported by the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee, the Departments of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Human Resources/Employee Health of the University of California, Davis. Co-authors of the study include postgraduate researchers Daniel C. Martin and Christina E. Milano.