A law that went into effect on New Year's Day mandates that Pennsylvania stores can only sell slow-burning and fire-safe cigarettes.

Representatives from several local businesses said they doubt the law will have a large impact on their sales. Variations of the law also went into effect Thursday in Delaware, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas,

Debby Gorman, secretary treasurer of Gorman Distributors, 341 E. Liberty St., said the "fire-safe" cigarettes look almost identical to traditional ones, except that they have tiny paper bands and a bulge so small they're practically invisible to the naked eye.

The idea is that if the paper is thicker in two separate spots on these "fire-safe" cigarettes, they will go out if no one puffs on them. This, proponents say, should decrease the number of fires caused by unattended cigarettes.

About 800 Americans die each year in fires caused by the careless smoking of cigarettes, according to the Associated Press.Gorman said the wholesaler she works for hasn't seen a change in business in the three months or so since it began transitioning to "fire-safe" cigarettes.

But she has heard complaints "that they smell when they're burning, that they're harder to draw." Other people, Gorman said, have complained that the cigarettes stop burning too quickly if smokers don't take puffs frequently enough.

Gary Linn, owner of Tobacco Palace in Park City Center, said that even with the complaints, he doesn't anticipate a change in business. His customers, he said, love to smoke.

"They may end up making more roll-your-own, maybe (buying) a few more cigars or something else," Linn said. "I figure they're going to smoke no matter what."

According to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes, these laws already exist in 17 other states. They are Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.

Fifteen others states have similar laws that take effect this year or next. Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Washington, Wisconsin have laws that will take effect next year, according to the coalition's Web site. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia have laws that will take effect in 2010.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)