In the latest news related to tobacco industry Finland division of Philip Morris International, the largest private tobacco company in the world, was obliged to crush more than 20 million cigarettes when a new and rigorous legislation was implemented by Finland government demanding all cigarettes selling across the country to be fire-safe (also known as “reduced cigarette ignition propensity” or “self-extinguishing” cigarettes), according to local newspaper Turun Sanomat.

The products, including flagship Marlboro and Parliament, were destroyed by burning in the kilns of Ekokem, a factory based in Riihimäki, near Helsinki.

The spokesperson for Philip Morris Finland admitted the destruction of the products led to a considerable loss in revenues for the tobacco giant. The burned 20 million cigarettes had a market value of 5 million Euro (near $7 million).

Last month Finland became the first state across the European Union to oblige local cigarette companies to sell only fire-safe cigarettes. All non-fire-safe cigarettes were prohibited starting from April 1st, 2010.

The regulation is an effort to cut the number of severe residential fires caused by cigarettes and smoking-related materials. According to Finland Public Health and Security Department, cigarettes constitute the most often cause of fatal blazes across the country. Generally, smokers discard un-extinguished cigarettes into the litter or fall asleep when puffing.

Lawmakers consider that fire-safe cigarettes may reduce the number of residential fires and safe over 20 lives each year. Self-extinguishing cigarettes are required almost everywhere across the United States, as well as in Canada and Australia, and laws similar to that in Finland are currently pending in several European countries.

In other smoking-related news, Italian High Institute of Health reported that adult smoking rates across Italy went down by 3.7 percent (or 1.9 million people) last year. According to the survey carried out in collaboration with several anti-tobacco groups showed that the rate of smokers dropped from 25.4% down to 21.7% last year.

Thus, currently around 11.1 million adult Italians are smokers, out of which male-smokers account for 5.9 million and the rest 5.2 million are women The rate of male-smokers went down in 12 months by five percent from 28.9% down to 23.9%, whereas the drop among women who smoke constituted only 2.6 percent from 22.3% down to 19.7%.

According to some scientists, this difference can be explained by the fact that despite women light up less than men, it is much more difficult for them to give up their habit.

The current drop in the adult smoking rates across Italy offset a sudden growth reported in 2009, which reversed descending tendency started when the government imposed strict anti-smoking policy in 2005.

In a similar report published last year ahead of UN No-Tobacco Day, Italian High Institute of Health said that the rate of smokers across the country went up from 22% to 25.4%. The same report stated that the number of adult men who smoke grew from 6.5 million up to 7.1 million, whereas the number of female smokers rose from 4.7 million up to 6.5 million.

By Sara Norton, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2010 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.