Fire Outbreaks in Homes and the Attitudes of the Smokers towards the Hazardous Environment - Term Paper Example

Writing Cigarette Smoking and domestic fires Customer Tutor’s Name Customer’s Name Customer’s Grade Course 20th September 2010 Abstract The paper is a research proposal seeking to find out the correlation between the smoking habits by people and the frequent domestic as well as some working places fires. The study analysis some literature in the area which would be a basis analyzing the data which would be gathered after the research. The research would use instruments like questionnaires, interview, focus group discussion and observation. Samples of the questionnaires which would be used are: 1. Do you feel at risk to fire at home due to your smoking habit? 2. How many cigarettes do you smoke when you are at home? 3. Where do you do most of your smoking when you are at home? 4. What time are you most likely to smoke? 5. Are there other members of the household around you when you smoke? 6. Do you use any strategies to minimize risk of stating a fire at your household? 7. Has a cigarette you were smoking ever caused a fire? If so, how did it happen? 8. Have you ever witnessed a cigarette cause fire in a home? If so, how did it happen? Introduction Cigarette smoking has recently been studied to be a hazardous adventure, and not only do the smokers put themselves to prolonged negative effects like cancer of the lungs, smoking can lead to major fire accidents. Such accidents are like the working place fire outbreaks, domestic fire and the forest fire. The study concentrates on the home domestic while introducing bits of the working place fire outbreaks. A largest percentage of households in the United Kingdom are ardent smokers and so if there is little care in their handling of smoking habits, it can cause a major outbreak of fire at home. Scope of the Study This study focuses on a household population of 100 who would be the respondents in this study. The study would not be limited to one region in United Kingdom but would get the 100 people from randomly sampled households in the whole of United Kingdom. This is to ensure that the outcome of the study cannot be seen to be biased where there could be emerging issues that a certain region is identified as having the majority smokers or non smokers. Statement of the Problem This study is all about the possibilities of fire outbreaks in homes and the attitudes of the smokers towards the hazardous environment they are creating out of their actions. The study is prompted by the rising levels of fire accidents which are linked to smoking cigarettes in the homes. As early as 1962, the levels of fire accidents had reached 75% and the level of smoking going as high as 20%. And so, there was a strong correlation between smoking and the domestic fire outbreaks. Research Hypothesis This study is based on a hypothetical analysis of how cigarette smoking can actually be the real cause of the rising number of fire accidents at domestic levels in many nations, and more in the United Kingdom. The following are the identified research hypothesis for this study: 1. To evaluate the relation between the smoking in the homes and the common domestic fire outbreaks. 2. To investigate whether there is any attributed connection fires in the homes and the rising state of cigarette smoking. 3. To understand the routine measure of smoking of cigarette at the domestic levels. 4. To understand the behavior of smoking and how it is started by the individuals, especially at the early stages of life. 5. To understand whether there is any attributes from the smokers on their behavior to smoke and the outbreaks of domestic fires. Assumptions of the Study The study has major assumptions in regard to the topic on cigarette smoking and the domestic fires. These assumptions help guide in the formulation of major research questionnaires and the interview questions. They are: 1. There is a strong correlation between the cigarette smoking in the homes and the occurrence of the domestic fires. 2. The behavior of smoking is started at the early stages of life and so as one continues in smoking; it becomes totally embedded to a point of no reverse. Literature Review Outcomes of fires as resulting from cigarette smoking are noted to occur in many instances. There can be fire accidents in vehicles, in homes, in working places, in forest, in grasslands and as well a person being consumed by fire after his or her clothes catches fire. All these can be caused by a person carelessly placing a cigarette end or a lighting match stick. For example, if someone throws out a cigarette end in dry grass and where the grass is vast in a field, then there is all possibility that the glowing end would just burn some few dry grasses while it spreads in all directions. According to the Rapra Technology & European Plastics news (March 2000), most fire hazards which are noted in the passengers cars are caused by careless smoking inside. For example, if a driver smokes and then throws the cigarette end or the match stick carelessly, and then this falls into the niche where there is grease and/ or other rubbish form which is an ideal fire medium, then a fire would explode out easily. The deaths in a sudden explosion are also sudden and it is actually difficult to get someone out of the car debris. Car fire accidents are on the rise, and this is attributed to the careless disposing of the cigarette ends or the match sticks, and if there would be efforts to minimize this, only frequency of civic education on the dangers of dangerously smoking can help. However, the domestic fires are the ones which are known to take the bulk of the results of the careless cigarette smoking. For example, if one was smoking while sleeping on a couch, and all of a sudden the match stick which is still glowing falls on some dry papers, unknown to the smoker, these papers can easily take up fire and spread to other parts. The results of such an action would only be contemplated after the eventual results. It is therefore advisable that smoking be given some decency where one chooses an appropriate place for taking the puffs. In a study, it was noted that 20-25% of the fire deaths are said to result due to careless smoking in the houses (Wallace 2008). That means, all other causes of fire outbreaks take the 75-80% of the total, and so, with cigarette smoking taking a significant 25%, it means that the end of this is yet to be seen if there would be little or no application of legal measures or ethical adherence. Perhaps one begging question is whether the cigarette making companies will ever consider developing cigarette with designs such that the glowing from the cigarette would cease causing burnings of properties. It is noted that with so many of the cigarette ends being thrown carelessly, it would take just a few of the households’ smokers to burn the home down if all of them are to be doing this continuously. In the year 2004, the number of fires which had been caused by the lighted tobacco and its products amount to double the numbers of the previous years, meaning that if a study was to do today, this number has already tripled that of the year 2004 (Wallace, 2008). These figures are worrying a lot and it needs some mechanism to end this and perhaps strong adherence of ethics in the smoking habit. Such would encompass that it is actually unethical to smoke in the presence of the others or some places should be designated for the behavior. If a member of a family wants to smoke, then he or she should do that with some restraints and perhaps do it outside the house. An indirect smoker, or the person inhaling smoke from the tobacco is also exposed to some dangerous hazards and so it is not only the fire which could make the smoking be done in places away from the presence of others, but also on the health of these members. According to Wallace (2008), cigarette smoking and the tobacco in general is the leading causes of the fatal fires experienced across the world. For example, in the year 1999, there were four deaths in the United States which were said to have been caused by smoking cigarette in homes. A touch on the working shows that the behavior from home has been carried all the way to the job places. According to Morsisyan (15 June 2010), just as it is in homes, smoking too should be restricted in the working places as the ash-tray can be a cause to a fire outbreak in the organization. Such organizations are like the hospital where it is noted that there is significant number of the doctors and the nurses who smoke any form of the tobacco. An example of such an occurrence is when fire burned the West -chase Hilton Hotel that actually caused the deaths of 12 people (Tharmarajan, May 2007). The investigation showed that the real cause of this fire was out of the careless smoking inside the building where a material which was glowing/ or burning ignited the furniture in the building. Such deaths were unnecessary if both the private and the public organizational acts could prescribe restrictions of smoking in all working places for the safety of all others. According to Morsisyan (15 June 2010), smoking in the working places is a significant problem which can only be done away with if there are significant working laws to bar such acts, or there are strong ethical considerations written down for all the working staff to follow. In particular, smoking in a hospital environment is such a hazardous way and putting the patients in dangerous positions and aggravating the problems already inherent in the people. The study shows that more than half (55.6%) of the managers in most organizations are ardent smokers and have reported smoking. As well, the research showed that a significant large number of the hospital attendants, nurses and the doctors do smoke cigarette easily inside the facilities. According to Morsisyan (15 June 2010), this number is 37.0% meaning that there are no strong laws requiring people in the work places to adhere to the codes of conducts regarding smoking in the work places and the dangers inherent in smoking in such areas. Men or the males are known to be the largest percentage of smokers in the households and this could be true since they are the ones who are generally associated with this behavior. So, if a man smokes in a house and throws the end of the cigarette that glows to some papers lying idle in the home. When these catch the fire, then a major fire would just erupt. Some other materials of the hospital which can cause an eruption of the fire are like the embers from the charcoals, the lit incense sticks and the glowing tobacco in the cigarette if they are just dropped aimlessly on the floor or anywhere there are some dry materials which can catch fire. The forests as well are not free from the fires emanating from the smoking and as Morsisyan (15 June 2010) notes, the cigarettes are the greatest enemies of the forest fires in recent and the past times. Some 8,000,000 to 12,000,000 acres of land in forest are destroyed by fires which are started by someone throwing a cigarette aimlessly in the dry grass. The results of such actions are hard to contemplate as thousands of the forest inhabitants are driven away or some die in the infernos especially the slow ones, the sick animals or general those which are caught suddenly in the inferno. When a cigarette is thrown in the forest, the fire is caused by the sparks or the hot ashes from the tobacco remains. Department for communities and local government; Great Britain (2006) notes that smoking cigarette is one of the identified areas of hazard in regard to fires in homesteads. Carelessly discarded cigarettes and some other materials for smoking are known to cause or start a fire. A cigarette can actually smolder for several hours and more so when it is surrounded by some combustible components. Even though the glowing material from the cigarette cannot start the fire instantly, if this material remains on some combustible surface for sometime, it starts to burn slowly and eventually a major fire outbreak (Department of communities and local government; Great Britain 2006). Such are caused when people are sleeping and cannot notice when the materials are slowly burning. There are some other factors which can actually make the spreading of fire in homes become faster and the results become more serious. According to Department of communities and local government; Great Britain (2006), factors such as confusion after the fire has already spread even though to some controllable levels can make the whole situation become worse. Confusion is seen mostly on the old people who panic suddenly and some are caught in the inferno due to inability to get out to safer areas or using the right methods to escaping from the burning house. This spells out for general care when we are handling basic things like fire or when we act stupidly like dropping cigarette end anywhere thinking that it cannot be the source of many deaths which can come out of this. Such measures should even encompass liaising with the information departments like fire brigades, being calm while escaping and taking care of the remains of the cigarettes. With such measures, there could be surety that even though some properties would be lost, lives would not be lost, and if prior care is done then there would be no such causes at all. Smoking is more noted to start at early stages rather than in later years (Gronberg & Srb 1998). They give an example of a teenager who practiced smoking out of seeing someone else do it in a fan way and so decided to emulate the other person. The result of that was dangerous since, as he had to hide it from his mom, he quickly threw the remaining burning cigarette into the drawer when she showed up in one of his presence. The result was that many of his wears and especially the socks were badly burned. The incidence teaches that not all people like smoking and they do that out of trying to experiment what the others are doing and not knowing that the people they are trying to emulate are also going through some psychological torture of their own. As well, was it not for the ‘safe place the cigarette end fell while trying to hide his habit from his mother, then there could have been more damage than the burning of the socks. As well, it is studied from this case that the routines in which smokers do their smoking starts as early as being a teenager and this means during the high school years. Phillips (2008) writes that over 90% of the deaths caused by in-house smoking are caused by a person holding a lighted cigarette in the hands while sleeping or when a lighted piece is thrown in some areas or materials which are capable of catching fire and spreading it rapidly. The best way in which fires in the homes can be prevented and especially those which are related to the cigarette smoking is by stopping to smoke in the house or anywhere there are some combustible materials which if they catch fire, they can transmit this to the burning of the house. There are supposed to be some adherence of ethics in taking care of the home facilities and especially the ones related to smoking cigarettes inside the houses or anywhere around the house. For example, one should not smoke when there are some vulnerable people around him or her. According to Kochersgerger (Jan/Feb 1996), this can not only expose them to hazards related to smoking but can also mean that the area around them is not secure, especially if the area is around or inside the house. On the general term, people should not smoke while inside the house and how people dispose the remains of these substances should be done with utmost care. Cigarette smoking has been studied to be on the rise meaning that there is no enough civic education on the dangers inherent when one smokes or even the dangers to the smoker’s surrounding. According to Lawson (15 Feb. 1962), cigarette smoking had risen by more than 20% from the year 1953 and the number of the fire domestics were studied to have risen over 75%. Reading this data, there is a strong correlation between the rising of the smoking habits and the rising in percentage of the domestic fires from the year 1953 to 1962. This means that the rise on the smoking habits in homes had resulted to the rise in percentage the domestic fires in the same periods. Conclusions This study is a research proposal seeking to find the relation between the habit of smoking by people and the domestic fires which are found to be frequently occurring. The research is to be based in the United Kingdom and random sampling would be used to gather data. Getting this data would be done using the random sampling of households and to some working places while the instruments to be used would include questionnaires, observation, interview and the focus group discussion. The preliminary or basis study is that cigarette smoking is attributed to many fires which occur in the homes and other areas like forests and grass lands. Methodology of the Study This study would both use the qualitative and the quantitative methods where the qualitative methods would focus on some instruments and the quantitative on the others. For example, the quantitative methods would be in the use of questionnaires, and the interviews while the qualitative would be on the focus group discussions, observations and in the analysis of the data. Research Instruments Due to the diverse nature of the study, the only instruments for this study would be questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and the observations. The four are relevant to virtually all the respondents without the general feeling that they are being compelled to answer the questions. The questionnaires and the interviews would be to the administrators in working places while the focus group discussion and observation would be done in people in the households. Limitations of the Study This study focuses on finding out the correlations between smoking and the many fire outbreaks which are seen to be occurring frequently. The focus respondents are the household residents and some of the working staff. However, there are a number of limitations which will come out of this study. Some of them are in the feelings by the people that their answering some questionnaires would be a form of using the data to punishing them while others like observation and focus group discussion would lead to change of behavior if they notice that there is recording of data. As well, the scope chosen may actually not be appropriate as compared to using one region as a focus of study. References Great Britain, 2006, Fire safety risk assessment: residential care premises, Department for Communities and Local Government publication, West Yorkshire. Gronberg, E & Srb K 1998, Smokers and quitters: What smoking means to people and how they manage to quit. Kroshka books, Jericho Kochersberger, G Jan/Feb. 1996, “Resident smoking in long-term care facilities- policies and ethics.” A journal of Public Health reports Vol. 111 No 1, pp 1-5. Lawson, D 15th February 1962, “New scientist magazine”. Vol. 13 No 274. Morsisyan, N 15 June 2010, “Attitudes, practice and beliefs towards worksite smoking among administrators in Armenia,” A journal of University of Armenia, Vol 19 No 4 pp 5- 34, Philips B 2008, Locksmith and security professionals: exam study guide, McGraw-Hill Company, New York. Rapra Technology & European Plastics News, 2000, TPE 2000: A two-day conference held at Crowne Plaza hotel, Amsterdam 6th- 7th March 2000, Rapra Technology ltd, United Kingdom. Tharmarajan, P A/L, May 2007, “The Essential Aspects of Fire Safety Management in High-Rise Building.” A journal of University Teknologi Malaysia, Vol. 1 No 1 pp 23-40. Wallace, R. 2008, Wallace/Maxcy-Rosenau-last public health and preventive medicine (15th ed), McGraw-Hill companies, New York. Read More