Exploding Cigarettes Stun Four Smokers
Police Investigate Va. Incidents for Possible Criminal Product-Tampering
By Peter Finn and Ann O'Hanlon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 24 1997; Page B01
The Washington Post
To the long list of hazards associated with smoking, add one more: exploding cigarettes.
In the last week, four Northern Virginia residents lit up Marlboro cigarettes only to trigger small but loud blasts that left them either blackened with powder burns or temporarily blinded by a flash of light. Police are investigating the explosions for possible criminal product-tampering.
"There is a public safety issue here, a very real one," said Tom Bell, spokesman for Arlington County police.
Experts from Philip Morris Cos., which manufactures Marlboros, also have begun investigating, and the company has removed cigarettes from certain locations where exploding packs may have been sold.
"We believe that they're isolated incidents," said Karen Daragan, director of communication for Philip Morris USA. "We're in the middle of conducting our own investigation and working with police. . . . We have no reason to conclude that there are any necessary steps to take at this point" in terms of any widespread recall of the product.
In the four cases reported, smokers said they found a hard, strawlike object in the cigarettes, which are being sent to labs for testing.
The first incident occurred Sunday morning in Woodbridge.
Ray McGuin, an employee of East Coast Billiards, tried to light a cigarette about 11 a.m. He already had smoked a number of cigarettes from his pack of Marlboro Reds, all without surprises.
"The second that he lit that cigarette, it blew up all over him," said Bob Chamberlain, who was sitting five feet from McGuin. "It was loud. . . . I thought he was dead standing up. His whole face was just covered" with powder. McGuin said his boss had found the sealed pack of cigarettes in the bathroom at work and, recognizing them as his brand, gave them to him.
"It was very scary," McGuin said. "I was just so glad it didn't happen [the previous day] while I was driving and I had my kids, because most likely I would have had an accident."
McGuin did not seek medical treatment but called police after he heard about other incidents.
About seven hours after McGuin's blackening, a 31-year-old Arlington man, whom police have not identified, lit a cigarette in his apartment and suffered minor powder burns on his nose and swelling around his right eye when the cigarette exploded.
The man told police he thought he had bought his pack of Marlboro Reds at Secrets Restaurant and Lounge in Alexandria. Philip Morris officials removed cigarettes from the restaurant Thursday, owner Betty Claprood said, but now police think the cigarettes came from another site, Bell said. The Arlington man was treated at National Hospital Medical Center, which reported the incident to police.
On Monday afternoon, a Fairfax woman noticed a small flash of light when she tried to light a Marlboro Red.
"Just a real tiny spark came from it," recounted Joyce Betts, 33, a Fairfax City homemaker. "And I pulled it away from my mouth because I knew it wasn't right."
She said she wasn't thinking when she decided to hold a match to it anyway, even though her 9-year-old daughter was nearby.
"I wanted to see what would happen if I put the lighter up to the straw," she said. "Within a second, it exploded. Both of my hands were black. My daughter started crying. She said her ears were ringing." Betts went to an emergency room but was uninjured.
Betts purchased the cigarettes at the Tacketts Mill Safeway in Woodbridge last Saturday. Yesterday, the store's Marlboro rack remained empty after packs were pulled from the shelves when Betts reported the incident.
On Thursday, a Fairfax County man reported a large flash of light as he lit a cigarette in his car while driving on the Dulles Toll Road. The man called police when he got home, but officials could provide no further details yesterday.
Daragan said that the only consumer to contact Philip Morris was Betts and that the company offered her a "replacement product."
Betts was unimpressed.
"They better not send me no more Marlboros," she said.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
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