INDUSTRY SNUFFS FIRE-SAFE SMOKES.(MAIN)

Byline: MYRON LEVIN Los Angeles Times

Many people know that smoking is among the nation's leading preventable causes of death. Cigarettes also are responsible for about one-quarter of all U.S. fire fatalities. Often, the 1,000 victims each year are not just smokers who drifted off to sleep but children and other non-smoking bystanders.

Yet many scientists and fire officials say these deaths are often unnecessary because small design changes in cigarettes would make them less prone to start fires.

For 25 years, many bills have been introduced in state legislatures and Congress to require cigarettes to meet a fire-resistance standard.

But tobacco companies, claiming fire-safe smokes would not be commercially feasible, have repeatedly overpowered or outflanked such efforts. And the way they …