On the heels of a tragic Madison house fire that killed a
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student last fall, the state Assembly and
state Senate are moving forward in tandem on a pair of identical bills that aim
to reduce fires caused by cigarettes.

The proposed bills mandate that all cigarettes sold in
Wisconsin be made with flame-resistant paper that self-extinguishes if it is
not being smoked. If passed, all cigarettes sold in Wisconsin would have to
conform to the new regulation.

So far, the bills have moved swiftly through both the
Assembly and Senate with nearly unanimous support. Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit,
a key proponent of the bill, said she is confident the measure will be
approved.

?When you have companion bills that are moving this quickly,
it is not a question of whether the legislation will be passed, it is largely a
case of seeing which bill will get through both houses first,? Robson said.

Ryan Murray, communications director for Sen. Scott
Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the bills would have little impact on tobacco
vendors, producers and suppliers.

?Some Republicans had initial reservations that the bill
would be overreaching, but after talking to people involved in the tobacco
industry, we realized the impact it would have on those people would be
minimal,? Murray said. ?The tobacco industry is already making these
cigarettes, so it would not disrupt those industries.?

?Fire-safe? cigarettes have been adopted via legislation by
22 states and have been implemented in five of those states.

?In New York, the first state to implement fire-safe
cigarettes, the results have been overwhelmingly positive, and no problems have
been encountered,? said Nadine Gratz, a legislative analyst for Robson.

Gratz said there would be no change in the price or taste of
cigarettes, and only the paper the cigarette is made of would change. Gratz
also said both types of cigarettes would be available for more than a year
after the passage of the bill.

?There will be an 18-month lead time for vendors to move to
the fire-safe cigarettes. In that period, vendors will be able to sell both the
new and old cigarettes,? she said.

The proposed bills come less than three months after a
deadly fire killed UW-La Crosse student Peter Talen at 123 N. Bedford St., just
off the Madison campus. The Madison Fire Department said a discarded cigarette
may have started the blaze.

Ed Ruckriegel, inspector for the MFD, called the measures
set forth in the proposals ?the most effective means of protecting lives and
property since the adoption of requirements for smoke detectors in the 1970s.?

Lori Wirth, a representative for the MFD, also lauded the
emphasis on public safety.

?The benefits of the legislation are so clear, everyone [in
the MFD] is in agreement with it,? Wirth said. ?This was a long time coming.?