Couple escape blaze at home after being alerted to cigarette fire

TWO 88-year-olds owe their lives to a smoke alarm after fire tore through their bungalow.

Martin and Rosaline Brazier, of Delamere Road, Congleton, were woken up by the device at 11.30pm on Tuesday after the blaze started in the living room of their bungalow.

Mrs Brazier, also known as Greta, admitted that she initially thought it was the burglar alarm that woke them, but it was not until she discovered the front room ablaze that she realised what was happening.

She said: "I came out of the bedroom and saw a glimmer of light. I thought I had left the light on but as I got a little bit closer I realised it was flames.

"I tried to stay calm and hurried around to my neighbour to use the phone and call the fire brigade."

The couple has been told that the blaze was started by a cigarette.

Mrs Brazier said: "It was me. I thought I had put my cigarette out before I went to bed, but obviously I hadn't.

"I don't know how long it took for the fire to start but it must not have been that long because I wasn't properly asleep."

Two fire engines, two police cars and an ambulance arrived at the scene and the pair were taken to Macclesfield Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation.

Mr Brazier said: "The house has been damaged by smoke. We have spoken to the insurance company."

Mr and Mrs Brazier, who have lived in the house for more than 20 years, admitted that it was the fire alarm that saved their lives.

Mr Brazier added: "I was in a really deep sleep so if the alarm didn't go off then I may not have woken up. It really did save our lives, a lot of our things have been damaged but it could have been much worse."

The fire alarm was installed at the house following a home safety assessment from Cheshire's Fire and Rescue. Mr Brazier said: "It's the best thing we ever did having that alarm put in."

The couple's son, Colin Brazier, of Swettenham Lane, Congleton, added: "Without doubt, the fire alarm saved my parents' lives. If it had not gone off then they wouldn't be here today."

Alex Waller, performance manager for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "This incident clearly highlights once again the importanceof having working smoke alarms.

"I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure that your home is safe and that everyone knows what to do if a fire should break out.

"This smoke alarm was fitted for free by Congleton firefighters in May 2009 as part of a home safety assessment visit.

"The crew also gave the couple advice on what to do in the event of a fire, which included shutting doors.

"The smoke alarm alerted this couple to the danger and gave them enough time to escape uninjured from this fire."

Reagan’s tobacco bill: A case of persistence and compromise

One bill signed into law this session is a textbook example of persistence, compromise, and how legislation sometimes ends up not too far from what it intended in the first place.

Early in the session, Sen. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, introduced a bill that aimed to increase the penalty for minors who use a fake ID to purchase tobacco products and prohibit the manufacture of “blunt wraps,” which are intended to be used by consumers to roll their own tobacco cigars, but also can be filled with marijuana instead.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill into law on April 29 - but not before it was watered down, initially killed in the Senate, revived, and then amended again the House. The final version no longer contained provisions dealing with blunt wraps.

And instead of instead of a Class 3 felony, minors who present a fake ID in purchasing tobacco products face a petty offense - the same penalty that’s currently in statute for minors who buy cigarettes.

The bill increased the fine to $500 from $300 for individuals under 18 who use false documents to get a cigarette.

The measure’s evolution affirms the nature of the Arizona Legislature - deliberative and wary of big and sweeping changes, preferring instead incremental movements.

But the bill survived because Reagan didn’t give up, even when the odds were stacked against her.

Actually, she thought the bill would easily sail through.

“It was funny, because I thought the blunt wrap issue was going to be fine,” Reagan said.

It turned out to be anything but.

The provision dealing with blunt wraps landed her in the middle of an ugly feud between a national group of cigar manufacturers and one of its members.

The group said the wraps were besmirching its industry because they were used for smoking marijuana. But one maker of the wraps argued that the move was protectionist and anti-competitive. One Arizona-based manufacturer also vigorously opposed the provision.

When she couldn’t get the two sides to compromise, Reagan dropped the blunt-wrap component.

But things didn’t get any easier.

Reagan’s colleagues still balked at the amended bill, and they crossed party lines to sink the proposal in February. They argued the proposed penalty for minors was too excessive, as a Class 3 misdemeanor carries up to 30 days of jail time. It is already illegal to sell tobacco products to a minor, and a minor who buys tobacco is guilty of a petty offense.

Reagan worked to revive the measure, and managed, in the end, to convince nearly the entire Senate to support the proposal. The Senate approved the measure in March.
But then Reagan found out from the Governor’s Office that the state gets some federal funding for tobacco prevention.

“Changing the bill the way it was written would have jeopardized that funding,” Reagan said. “(So), we took it as far as we can without jeopardizing that funding.”

So, legislators lessened the penalty back to a petty offense in the House but increased the existing fine.

The Legislature then sent the bill to Brewer’s desk - on the last day of session.

“I didn’t get everything on this one, but that’s alright. Par for the course, right?” Reagan said.

A Senator's Unilateral Recommendation To Ban Menthol is Inconsistent with the Recommendations of the FDA Tobacco Advisory Committee

Senator Blumenthal states that his recommendation to ban menthol cigarettes is based on the report of the FDA Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee. Unfortunately he must have not read the report in its entirety. The TPSAC made it clear that no action can be taken on a ban until the issue of contraband has been addressed.

A good example of menthol cigarettes is Kiss Superslims Menthol cigarettes.

Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) has informed TPSAC that China exports 400 billion cigarettes per year. CRE continues to issue reports based on information obtained from Chinese government publications which demonstrate that the contraband industry in China is flourishing and will be even more prosperous with a menthol ban. CRE presentations to TPSAC clearly demonstrated that a menthol ban will not only result in an increase in adult and underage smoking of tobacco products but in doing so both groups will be exposed to heavy metals at a level which is an order of magnitude greater than legal cigarettes.
Consequently, if the Congress is going to get involved in the FDA review of the TPSAC report they should do so only after they have read the entire record.

FDA says tobacco law doesn't apply to two smokeless lozenges

It's not often a tobacco company gets released from government regulation without asking.

But that's apparently what happened to Star Scientific Inc. after it asked the Food and Drug Administration to treat two versions of its smokeless, dissolvable tobacco lozenges as "modified risk" because they contain lower levels of carcinogens than other tobacco products.

The most demamded tobacco products are cigarettes as Marlboro Gold cigarettes or Winston cigarettes.

The FDA responded that the products aren't considered smokeless tobacco at all and don't come under the 2009 tobacco law, according to a Star Scientific announcement on Wednesday.

"We were very surprised. We obviously believed that these were smokeless tobacco products under the act," said Sara Troy Machir, Star Scientific's vice president for communications and investor relations.

Why FDA judged Ariva-BDL and Stonewall-BDL exempt from the tobacco law is a mystery.

Both the FDA and Star Scientific declined to release copies of the agency's decision because they said it contained confidential commercial information.

Machir said the FDA cited "details of the manufacturing process" -- which are secret – in exempting the products from oversight.

In a statement, the FDA said it recognizes that "there are uncertainties regarding the regulatory status of a variety of nicotine-containing products" including whether they should be regulated as drugs or tobacco.

The agency said it's "considering its legal and regulatory options regarding these products."

Star Scientific's announcement caused consternation among anti-tobacco activists who said it opens a loophole other smokeless tobacco makers will attempt to exploit.

The decision is puzzling and disappointing because the tobacco law "does not distinguish among smokeless tobacco products based on manufacturing process," said Matt Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

"The FDA's handling of this creates unnecessary uncertainty and the potential for widespread abuse," Myers said.

Lynn Kozlowski, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Buffalo, said the decision highlights the difficulties in precisely defining everything a new law is supposed to cover.

"On one hand, you have common sense and on the other hand definitions and sometimes they don't mesh," Kozlowski said. "I can only speculate that there's something about [Star Scientific's] process that isn't covered by the definition FDA is using."

Psychiatric Patients Risking Lives For A Cigarette

Australia's involuntary mental health patients are so desperate to defy smoking bans they are poking electricity sockets with paper clips to get a spark and light up, The (Perth) Sunday Times reported.

The revelation based on a new report is being used by Western Australia's mental health watchdog, the Council of Official Visitors, to bolster its call for designated smoking areas for involuntary patients.

In its latest annual report, the watchdog warned one patient was soaking nicotine patches in tea "to get more of a nicotine fix" and it was "cruel" to force mental health patients to give up their addiction on admission.

It also highlighted "reports of patients using straightened paper clips in electricity outlets to obtain a spark to light a cigarette."

"It is not the right time to be asking people to go through the terrible nicotine withdrawal symptoms," the council wrote in the report tabled in parliament.

"The ban is also a further erosion of consumers' rights and not in accordance with section five of the Act which requires that people with a mental illness must receive care and treatment with the least restriction of their freedom and least interference with their rights."

But Australian Council on Smoking and Health president Mike Daube said the council's call was "misguided, retrograde and exaggerated."

He said the smoking ban, introduced on all public hospital sites in 2008, was "being very well implemented and there will always be one or two exceptions."

"There doesn't seem to be any concern about the physical health of mental health patients and we shouldn't just be worried about their health from the neck up," he said.