Up in smoke: FDA bans flavored cigarettes

As part of the national effort to reduce smoking in America, the Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on cigarettes that taste like fruit, candy or clove. Talk about a gateway drug. Who do you think is attracted to cigarettes that taste like candy?

True confession time: When I was 14 and a freshman in high school, I decided it would be cool to learn how to smoke. Too scared to buy a pack from a cashier, I walked down the block to Top’s Diner and put my dollar in the cigarette machine. I knew before I even arrived what brand I wanted: Kool. Why? I thought the menthol would make them taste better, smoother. And menthol cigarettes seemed somehow safer than regular cigarettes like Marlboro Red or something really hard-core like Lucky Strikes. Turns out I was far from alone: Studies have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25.

The good news is I never got started. After one Kool alone in my room, I never smoked again. But many teen smokers become adults who smoke. "Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers," says FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. "These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers."

The FDA says its ban on sweet-flavored cigarettes highlights the importance of reducing the number of children who start to smoke, and who become addicted to dangerous tobacco products. Next on the agency's agenda: regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes.

Any company that continues to make, ship or sell these products may be subject to FDA enforcement actions. The FDA is asking for your help, too: If you see these sweet cigarettes for sale, please report them to 1-877-CTP-1373 or on the FDA's Web site.

Check out the FDA advisory to parents on the risks associated with flavored tobacco products for more information.—Desiree Calamari

Comments

[James]

Ridiculous. We live in one of the least free countries on earth. We are becoming more of a joke every day.

[Sam]

Gosh that argument is always used... save the kiddies!... those yummy flavors will surely get kids hooked! Hello people?? PEER PRESSURE is what gets kids into cigarettes and most other bad habits. How about parents take some damn responsibility and start raising their kids right. That is the only defense against PEER PRESSURE. All this "ban this and that because we are thinking of the children" is utter POOP and is simply propaganda to advance a political agenda because it sounds nice to rally behind.

If they really cared about our health, they would ban all cigarettes and legalize electronic cigarettes (water vapor + nicotine) or some other nicotine alternative.

[Mike]

Dude ... This is a good change.

[Tony]

It is interesting how you used menthol cigarettes as your example but don't specifically say that menthols were not part of the ban. 'Next on the agency's agenda' kind of slides right by it.
Folks might also be interested in the fact that the bill voted on recently that gave the FDC the authority to enact the ban was co-authored by the company Altria (used to be called Philip-Morris). The same company that DIDN'T make any of the banned flavored cigarettes but DOES do a brisk business in menthol cigarettes. Funny how these things work...

[undertow]

Health Care mandatory like car insurance now EWhat we can and cant smoke,next it will be what we can and cant drive and so on mark my words!!
Isn't that what they call COMMUNIST?
aMERICA IS NOW SO DUMBED DOWN OUR GOVERNMENT IS GETTING AWAY WITH THIS AND EASD DAY WE HAVE 1 LESS RIGHT TO CHOSE OR TO DO SOMETHING.
Our power mad government is out of contro dont you think?