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Big Tobacco Targeting NY Kids with Fruit and Candy-Flavored Products
May 31, 2013
NEWS
from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
For Media Inquiries Contact:
Ashley Engelman 312-502-7443
[email protected]
Analysis: Big Tobacco Increasingly Targeting New York Kids with Fruit and Candy-Flavored Products
Latest Strategy Coincides with Increased Use of Non-Cigarette Tobacco Products by New York Minors; ACS CAN Urges State to Set Immediate Restrictions
(Albany, NY) (May 31, 2013) – A new analysis by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) released for World No Tobacco Day spotlights a dangerous trend in tobacco marketing. Cancer Brief: Candy-Flavored Tobacco – Big Tobacco’s Latest Effort to Hook Kids shows that tobacco companies are increasingly offering candy-flavored non-cigarette tobacco products to appeal to minors, following a federal ban of candy-flavored cigarettes. Equally concerning, this shift in marketing coincides with a growing use of these products by minors in New York State.
“We know from both internal documents and common sense what Big Tobacco’s plotting: use candy-flavored non-cigarette tobacco products to get our kids hooked, so they can then ‘graduate’ to traditional brands. It’s appalling,” said Blair Horner, Vice President for Advocacy, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network of NY & NJ. “New York City has already passed legislation to restrict the sale of these products, New York State needs to do the same.”
In 2009, Congress enacted the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act banning the use of flavors other than menthol in cigarettes. Tobacco companies have countered by marketing a variety of new cigar and smokeless tobacco products, many with sweet flavors and colorful packaging that attract kids. In particular, some companies have exploited regulatory loopholes to market cheap, candy-flavored cigars that look and are smoked just like cigarettes.
Examples of flavored tobacco products include little cigars flavored in vanilla, strawberry and grape; and tobacco wrappers flavored in chocolate, melon and mango.
Data reported in Cancer Brief: Flavored Tobacco indicates that this marketing strategy is working in New York specifically. The use of non-cigarette tobacco products is on the rise among New York high school students, at a time when cigarette use is decreasing. The New York State Department of Health estimates that in 2012, 154,000 high school youth used tobacco products such as cigars, smokeless tobacco, or hookahs on one or more days in the past 30 days.
ACS CAN is urging New York State lawmakers to set immediate restrictions on the sale of flavored non-cigarette tobacco products. New York City restricted the sale of these products in 2009.
Every year roughly 400,000 smokers die from tobacco use. The entire Cancer Brief is available at ACSCAN.org/NY.
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About the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
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