Concerned that high numbers of cigarette-caused house fires would prompt restrictions on cigarettes or force changes in cigarette formulations, industry leaders at the Tobacco Institute developed a strategy to shift the blame for house fires away from cigarettes as the cause of ignition and onto furniture as the object that caught on fire. As early as the 1930s, researchers had developed a “fire-safe” cigarette that would self-extinguish, meaning the cigarette would not smolder all the way down without active inhalation by the smoker, but the tobacco industry was concerned that this type of reformulation would decrease sales and repel customers. To deflect attention away from cigarettes’ role in house fires, the tobacco industry pushed for increased flammability standards and invested heavily in relationships with the fire service, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to fire departments around the country.

Cordner, Alissa. Toxic Safety: Flame Retardants, Chemical Controversies, and Environmental Health. Columbia University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7312/cord17146.