US
Five US healthcare organizations are calling for a ban on all candy- and fruit-flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, and hookah tobacco, asserting that these products are undermining national efforts to reduce youth tobacco use and placing children at health risks from tobacco use and nicotine addiction.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids also criticized recent legislation introduced in Congress that could limit FDA oversight of e-cigarettes and cigars, as well as the growing market of flavored products.
A joint report by the five organizations said, “Despite FDA’s ban on flavored cigarettes, the overall market for flavored tobacco products is growing. Continuing a long tradition of designing products that appeal explicitly to new users, tobacco companies in recent years have significantly stepped up the introduction and marketing of flavored other tobacco products — OTPs — particularly e-cigarettes and cigars, as well as smokeless tobacco and hookah.”
“Although tobacco companies claim to be responding to adult tobacco users’ demand for variety, flavored tobacco products play a key role in enticing new users, particularly kids, to a lifetime of addiction.” “Congress must reject any proposals to weaken FDA oversight of these products. In fact, FDA should strengthen its new rule by prohibiting all flavored tobacco products, including menthol products.”
“As FDA itself has demonstrated and as this report documents, there is more than sufficient scientific evidence to support such a prohibition. Eliminating all flavored tobacco products is a critical step in preventing tobacco companies from addicting another generation of kids and reversing our nation’s progress in the fight against tobacco.”