Prevention Matters

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will start enforcing a ban on candy, fruit and other flavored cigarettes, which is one of the first provisions of the new federal law allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco products. Mike Meyers over at Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids reports that some tobacco companies may already be preparing to try to circumvent the ban.

"For example, Kretek International Inc., which imports Djarum-brand tobacco products from Indonesia and is the nation’s top distributor of clove-flavored cigarettes, has introduced clove cigars that look and, according to news reports, taste like its clove cigarettes.," Meyers says.

Tobacco companies have a long history of using flavors to attract kids, and survey data show that youth smokers are much more likely to use these flavored products. In a recent letter to the industry, the FDA warned that it will take aggressive action against attempts to evade the new law, noting that the ban "applies to all tobacco products that meet the definition of a “cigarette” in section 900(3) of the Act even if they are not labeled as “cigarettes” or are labeled as cigars or as some other product."

UPDATE 9/22/09:

The FDA has launched a web site dedicated to flavored tobacco products. You can access a link to the FDA flavored tobacco web site at: www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/FlavoredTobacco/default.htm <http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/FlavoredTobacco/default.htm> or from the main FDA tobacco products web page at: www.fda.gov/tobaccoproducts <http://www.fda.gov/tobaccoproducts> .