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Flavored Tobacco

The Truth about Flavored Tobacco FactsIn 2009 the FDA banned the use of flavored cigarettes, except menthol, however, there still remains a wide variety of flavored tobacco products.1,4 Flavored tobacco products include cigars, cigarillos, smokeless tobacco, hookah and e-liquid (used in electronic cigarettes [e-cigarettes]).2 Flavored tobacco products include appealing flavors (such as, but not limited to, fruit and candy flavors). Colorful packaging and low prices are some factors that are appealing to teens, and therefore, has created a new generation of users for the tobacco industry.2,4

The policy banning flavored cigarettes demonstrated a 17% reduction in the probability of someone being a cigarette smoker.1 The ban was associated with substitution toward the remaining legal flavored tobacco products like cigars (34%), pipes (55%), and menthol cigarettes(45%).1 Retail sales show that flavored non-cigarette tobacco products have increased in recent years, indicating that it is a popular tobacco product.3 This would suggest that the 2009 ban on flavored cigarettes did decrease the probability of being a cigarette smoker, but because other flavored tobacco flavors remain legal, people, particularly youth seek the alternatives.1,4

Youth are targeted in particular by the tobacco industry’s appeal of flavored tobacco products. In a household-based national survey, teens reported that the enticing fruit and candy flavors of flavored tobacco were the main reason for their consumption of the products.5 Teens report that 80% of them began using tobacco, with a flavored tobacco product and 70% used a flavored tobacco product in the past 30 days.5 The Central Valley has the third-highest teen smoking prevalence rate in the state, with 12% among high school students in 2011-2012.6 Given the current youth tobacco users and retail sales, it is important that policies be implemented in the Central Valley.6 It is crucial that we implement policies in order to help prevent youth from being the next generation of tobacco users.3,4,5

Policy Options

(from Countertobacco.org, click here for further information on specific policies)

States and localities across the country have implemented regulations that restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products in a number of ways that include the following:

  1. Restricting the sale of certain flavor types
    1. Banning the sale of tobacco products in any flavor except for menthol and or mint and wintergreen flavors
  2. Restrict by place sold
    1. Restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products to tobacco bars only
    2. Restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products to adult-only stores
    3. Restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products at retail stores only accessible to those 21 years of age or older
  3. Restrict by flavored product type
    1. Restrict flavored cigars
    2. Restrict E-Cigarettes
  4. Restrict the sale of flavored tobacco within a certain distance of schools
    1. Restrict sale within 500 feet (600 or 1000 feet) of schools
  5. Comprehensive Restrictions
  6. Indirect Restrictions
    1. Tax

Additional Information about Flavored Tobacco:

  1. The Truths About Flavored Tobacco
  2. Flavors Hook Kids
  3. Tobacco-Free CA
  4. American Lung Association

Works Cited

  1. Courtemanche CJ, Palmer MK, Pesko MF. Influence of the flavored cigarette ban on adolescent tobacco use. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2017;52(5):e146. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379716306201. doi: //doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.11.019.
  2. Counter Tobacco Organization. Flavored tobacco products. Countertobacco.org Web site. https://countertobacco.org/resources-tools/evidence-summaries/flavored-t.... Accessed November 1, 2018.
  3. Corey, C.G., et al., Flavored tobacco product use among middle and high school students—United States, 2014. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2015. 64(38): p. 1066-1070.
  4. California Medical Association. Flavored and mentholated tobacco products: Enticing a new generation of users. California Medical Association. 2016.
  5. Ambrose BK, Day HR, Rostron B, et a. Flavored tobacco product use among us youth aged 12-17 years, 2013-2014. JAMA pages = {1871-1873},. 2015;314(17). doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.13802 [doi].
  6. California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program. California tobacco facts and figures 2016. California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program. 2016.