Rules on candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes
The one year anniversary of the Tobacco Regulation Law is being celebrated today across the country. This law gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, the power to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products.
Several new provisions will take effect today that include:
A crackdown on tobacco marketing and sales to children.
Ban misleading cigarette labels such as “light,” “mild,” and “low tar.” These terms have been used to deceive the public and discourage smokers from quitting by falsely portraying some tobacco products as being safer.
Require larger and bolder warnings on smokeless tobacco products and advertising.
These new provisions follow the rules set out by the FDA last year in banning candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes and highlights the importance of reducing the number of children who start to smoke, and who become addicted early in life. Flavors of cigarettes that were banned included toffee, mocha, mint, vanilla and strawberry – flavors that would appeal to children.
According to FDA commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., last year, “Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers. These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers. The FDA will utilize regulatory authority to reduce the burden of illness and death caused by tobacco products to enhance our Nation’s public health.”
The tobacco companies have been fighting the laws imposed by the FDA and are challenging the new marketing restrictions in court. Most of the provisions have been upheld by a federal judge.
The FDA reports that over 400,000 people die each year in the US from tobacco use and costs $96 billion annually in health care expenditures. For more information click here.
In Michigan, the Tobacco Free Kids website reports close to 19 percent of high school students smoke and approximately 16,000 children under 18 become new daily smokers each year. Adults who die each year from their own smoking account for over 14,000 deaths, and adult non-smokers who die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke is roughly 1,740. Staggering figures.
From examiner.com. July 16th, 2010