The Transportation Security Administration will institute a ban on cigarette lighters on April 14. The TSA decided to prohibit passengers from carrying any lighter on their persons or in carry-on luggage in secure areas of airports or on planes. Passengers carrying lighters from now until April 14 will receive warnings about the up-coming ban.
Congressmen who voted for the ban have cited the case of Richard Reid, a London-born Muslim who failed to light a shoe bomb with a match while on a plane in December 2001. It seems a little late to instate a law banning an object as commonplace as a lighter more than three years after the incident.
Advocacy groups have gained great influence in recent years with legislation targeted against smokers. This ban may also be a submission to these groups, showing that big tobacco companies are losing power in politics.
While the ban seems outdated and overdue, it is legitimate. Safety in airports and airplanes has been a major concern for the public since Sept. 11, 2001. This certainly is not an attack against smokers. It is also past election hype, so safety issues will not be brought up again until the 2006 elections.
The ban will be a hassle for smokers because they will have to buy lighters after they reach their destinations, send lighters ahead of time or use matches instead (up to four matchbooks are still permitted in carry-on luggage). However, the hassle is necessary for airline passengers to feel safer in the air. Lighters are cheap as well, and a boom in lighter sales would not harm the companies that manufacture them.
