RICHMOND, Va. — The new federal ban on flavored cigarettes took effect Tuesday, marking one of the first visible signs of the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority to regulate tobacco.
The ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distribution includes candy-, fruit- and clove-flavored cigarettes, which health and federal authorities say are more appealing to youths. It does not include a ban on menthol or other flavored tobacco products such as cigars — issues that the FDA is studying.
“Candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular tobacco users,” said Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
Citing research studies, Deyton said that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25. FDA officials also said that almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers and that the ban will help stop more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily.
Executives from leading health groups urged the FDA last month to take a closer look at attempts to sidestep the ban by making superficial changes that turn a cigarette into a small cigar in order to keep selling flavored products.
The move came after word that the nation’s top distributor of clove cigarettes — California-based Kretek International Inc. — began offering small filtered spice-flavored cigars that are close to the size of a cigarette but are wrapped in tobacco rather than paper.
