Five-hundred popular upholstery fabrics were obtained from commercial fabric shops in North Carolina. The ignitability of each upholstery fabric was characterized using a particular smoldering cigarette in a specified protocol with six replications. If one or more of the smoldering cigarettes resulted in smoldering of the fabric, the fabric was classified as ignitable. Of the 500 fabrics, 355 were found to be non-ignitable and 145 were classified as ignitable. The differences between the properties of ignitable and non-ignitable fabrics were examined. The results show that the upholstery fabrics' contents of sodium and potassium salts, their concentrations of cellulosics, and their basis weights (areal densities) correlate with ignitability. An aqueous rinse of upholstery fabrics rendered them substantially non-ignitable by the smoldering-cigarette used in this study.

Upholstery fabrics for residential use were obtained from various fabric shops and manufacturers' catalogs. Screening was conducted with four experimental cigarettes of varying design. By the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cotton duck mockup method, two of the cigarettes display "low" ignition propensity and two show "high" ignition propensity. Of the fabrics obtained for this study, 316 smoldered when in contact with at least one of the experimental cigarettes. Further examination within this set of upholstery fabrics showed once again that cigarette ignition propensity ranking are dependent on fabric characteristics. The number of fabrics that showed ignition propensity rankings opposite to the NIST test "ranking" was similar to the number that agreed with it. That is, on the fabrics with rankings opposite to the NIST ranking, cigarettes of "low" ignition propensity by the NIST test showed more ignitions than cigarettes of "high" ignition propensity by the NIST test. These results are consistent with those of a previously published study with a smaller set of ignitable fabrics. Fabric weight was a key factor in determining fabric ignition behavior; two of the cigarettes showed increasing ignition propensity and two showed decreasing ignition propensity with fabric weight. For the majority of fabrics, however, cigarette design was unimportant in determining ignition behavior; that is, no differences in ignition behavior were observed with the different cigarette designs. The physical and chemical properties of the cotton duck fabrics of the NIST test are such that they repre-JOURNAL OF FIRE SCIENCES, VOL.

The 1984 Cigarette Safety Act created a Technical Study Group (TSG) to determine the feasibility of developing cigarettes with a minimum propensity to ignite upholstered furniture. The TSG found that combinations of certain cigarette characteristics were important in reducing the ignition propensity. Through a statistically designed study, those characteristics were ranked as follows: tobacco packing density, paper permeability, and circumference.The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of cigarette circumference alone on ignition propensity. Cigarettes were tested by four methods: the NBS mockup method, a controlled-fabric mockup test, a flowthrough mockup method, and a liquid crystal test. Results showed that while the NBS mockup test could not discriminate among the cigarettes, the other methods could, and results call into question the TSG's conclusion that smaller circumference cigarettes reduce the likelihood of ignition.

The United States and Canada have the highest fire death rates in the Western industrialized world, over twice as high as those of England, France, and Japan. While the careless handling of cigarettes has been asso ciated with only about 7% of the residential fires of known origin in the U.S. in recent years, these fires are also associated with over 25% of the fire deaths. Several groups have suggested that the differences in fire deaths between the U.S. and other countries is the design of the cigarettes made and sold in those countries.

Popular cigarette brands from the U.S. and four European countries were tested using the Mockup Ignition Test Method developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the 1990 Fire-Safe Cigarette Act.Only two cigarette brands showed a significant reduction in ignition propensity by the mockup test. These brands represent the major portion of the Hungarian cigarette market, yet 40% of fire deaths in Hungary are attributed to careless smoking fires. Cigarettes from Austria and the Netherlands showed 100% ignitions in all tests, yet those countries have very low fire death rates and few deaths attributed to careless smoking fires. Most of the U.S. cigarettes exhibited ignition behavior similar to Austrian and Dutch cigarette brands, but a few showed less than 100% ignitions.Ignition test results of cigarettes from Hungary, Austria, and the Netherlands strongly suggest that "reduced" ignition propensity, as measured by the NIST test, does not necessarily translate into reduced fire risk, nor does "failure" of the test necessarily indicate an increased fire risk. Other studies have shown that the NIST test represents the ignition behavior of only a fraction of U.S. upholstery fabrics, and is therefore an incomplete test. Cultural habits, fire prevention and education programs, fire awareness, financial considerations, and building design are factors to consider in evaluation of a country's fire situation.