Standard reference cigarettes for quality control of ignition test results (2000s)

• Cigarettes are the most common starter of fatal fires in the U.S.
• NIST developed a standardized test and a reference cigarette to assess the fire-proneness of cigarettes.
• NIST also created a second standard cigarette designed to test the flammability of furniture and mattresses.
• These standard cigarettes and tests have played a key role in reducing deaths from cigarette-initiated fires.

If someone falls asleep while smoking or throws a lit cigarette in the trash, it could ignite the things around it and quickly grow into a deadly fire. In fact, cigarettes are the most common igniter of fatal fires in the United States.

In the 1980s, a federal committee verified that it’s possible to make a discarded cigarette safer by reducing the time it stays lit. The main way this is done is by changing the paper wrapping so that bands of material along the cigarette restrict the flow of oxygen and absorb heat.

In the year 2000, the state of New York enacted a law mandating that cigarettes be “substantially less likely” to start a fire. However, before the law could take effect, officials needed a test method to define what “substantially less likely” meant.

Thanks to previous research, NIST already had an early version of a test that might work. NIST worked with the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control to refine that test so that it could be used to verify that cigarettes meet the mandate.

In the test, a lit cigarette is placed on a stack of paper that will absorb some of the heat, in the same way that a bed or an upholstered chair might. Then the testers observe whether the cigarette goes out early or if nearly all the tobacco burns. The test is run 40 times on the same type of cigarette. It passes the test and is labeled “FSC” for “Fire Standard Compliant” if 30 or more of those cigarettes go out before burning entirely. This test has now been standardized as ASTM E2187.

To make sure that the manufacturer and regulator get the same test result, it’s essential to have a standardized cigarette that any lab can use to make sure their test setup is accurate. NIST developed and procured a large supply of “standard reference material” (SRM) cigarettes, SRM 1082, which became available in April 2005. Labs aren’t required to use NIST’s standard cigarette specifically, but it is widely used and trusted. The state of New York used NIST’s SRM 1082 for quality control in its testing of more than 1,000 different types of cigarettes sold in New York.

On July 1, 2004, the New York law went into effect, and it spread quickly. By 2011, there were similar regulations in all of North America using the test NIST developed.

The success of the regulations soon became clear. New York state experienced a 40% decline in fatalities from cigarette-ignited fires. Five other studies of state or federal data showed a combined average decline of 30%.

This was a huge success, but NIST staff began to realize that these new cigarettes had an unintended side effect. Raising the fire safety standard for cigarettes inadvertently lowered the fire safety standard for beds and furniture.

Many fire safety tests for soft furniture involve using a cigarette to see whether it causes the item to burn. As the cigarettes used in these tests became safer, fabric and cushioning that couldn’t pass fire safety tests before could now pass.  

To solve this problem NIST created a second SRM cigarette, SRM 1196. It was designed to match the burning properties of a set of cigarettes from 1992 so that future soft furnishings tests would be just as effective as the tests had been before the laws for less fire-prone cigarettes.  

SRM 1196a - Standard Cigarette for Testing Flammability of Mattresses and Furniture

SRM 1196 or equivalent is now required as a part of the fire tests of mattress and furniture materials.

Without measurement science, passing and enforcing effective laws for cigarette ignition would be nearly impossible. NIST’s expertise in finding effective ways to measure new, important quantities is a vital part of continuing to make our world safer. 

Additional Reading:

CPSC report: Overview: Practicability of Developing a Performance Standard to Reduce Cigarette Ignition Propensity, 1993.  

ASTM standard: ASTM E2187, Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes, 2024.

Journal article: The Roles of Standard Cigarettes in Assuring the Ignition Resistance of Soft Furnishings. Fire and Materials, 2020.

NIST webpage: Standard Reference Materials, 2023.