Unregulated Big Tobacco lures young users
Remember candy Cigarettes when you were a child? They're back, but this time they're for real.
Remember candy Cigarettes when you were a child? They're back, but this time they're for real. Fortunately, Joe Camel is long gone, but the tobacco industry continues in innovative ways and without restraint to design and promote lethal products to our kids. Why not? Without federal oversight, they are free to lure children into the next generation of smokers to replace the 440,000 adults who die each year from tobacco use. An estimated 2.7 million Americans under the age of 18 smoke. Each day 4,000 kids will try their first cigarette and another 1,000 children will become regular daily smokers. A new report by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free kids reveals the extent to which tobacco manufacturers take advantage of the lack of regulation to find new methods to tempt young users. The tobacco industry has come a long way from the days of merely producing plain old Cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco. Cigarettes, small cigars, and smokeless products are now created in various candy, fruit and alcohol flavors to entice children. Knowing that first-time users find smoking unpleasant, tobacco companies use sugars, flavorings and other chemicals to hide the harshness, taste and heat to make the products easier to inhale. New cigarette product names include Kauai Kolada, Warm Winter Toffee and Winter Mocha Mint. Alcohol-flavored cigarette names include ScrewDriver Slots and SnakeEyes Scotch. Smokeless products come in various novel forms, some spitless, and in various flavors including vanilla, apple, berry blend and mint. Small cigars are sweetened and come in chocolate, strawberry, peach, cherry, grape and other flavors. New products also have been specifically targeted at girls. For example, R.J. Reynolds' Camel No. 9 Cigarettes have a pink hue and have been nicknamed the "Barbie Camel." Colorful ads for these products appear in magazines with large youth readership such as Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated. But the evil extends beyond sweet flavorings and marketing. The tobacco industry manipulates the amount of nicotine in products and adds other chemicals to increase their addictiveness. Examples include ammonia that increases the speed and efficiency of nicotine absorption, and glycerin and cocoa that facilitate deep lung penetration. Now, Congress has a historic opportunity to rein in the unconscionable behavior of the out-of-control tobacco empire. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act is bipartisan legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate existing and new tobacco products and their marketing. This would include requiring manufacturers to disclose the contents of tobacco products, prohibiting unproven health claims of "reduced-risk" Cigarettes, mandating removal or reduction of harmful ingredients, and requiring More descriptive health warnings on packaging. While this legislation would help protect all Americans, it includes specific provisions to safeguard our children from America's most lethal drug. The FDA legislation would further restrict tobacco advertising and promotions aimed at youth. The bill specifically bans candy-flavored Cigarettes. A Senate majority of 56 senators are sponsoring this legislation, as are 217 members of the House. The legislation has passed through committee in the Senate and is now at a critical juncture in a House committee. I applaud Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh and Rep. Brad Ellsworth for being cosponsors of this landmark legislation. I urge the rest of the Indiana congressional delegation to support FDA regulation of tobacco. Feldman, M.D., is director of medical education and family medicine residency at St. Francis Hospitals and health Centers and is a former state health commissioner. Contact him at [email protected].