Ban on flavored cigarettes applauded
Flavored cigarettes are now illegal and those of us working to snuff out oral cancer in America are thrilled. But the news gets even better – the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act has given the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate how tobacco companies manufacture, market and sell tobacco products.
This is a great win in the battle against tobacco-related diseases, especially for our youth. Flavored cigarettes entice children and teens to become smokers, and the tobacco industry has exploited this through youth-oriented marketing. According to the FDA, teens are three times more likely to use flavored cigarettes than are smokers over the age of 25.
Nicotine, a main ingredient in cigarettes, is one the world’s most addictive drugs. According to the American Heart Association, nicotine has historically been one of the hardest substance addictions to break. Every day 3,600 children and teens start smoking cigarettes and 1,100 will become daily users.
I applaud the FDA’s efforts to reduce the appeal cigarettes have on children and teens. The American Cancer Society says almost 90 percent of adult smokers tried their first cigarette at or before the age of 19. A 2007 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that half of high school students have tried cigarette smoking at some point. The ban on flavored cigarettes will help limit the risk for tobacco-related diseases like oral cancer, which causes 8,000 deaths a year.
To further reduce death and disease caused by tobacco products, the FDA should examine what options it has under the new law for regulating menthol cigarettes and other tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco such as chewing or dipping tobacco, dissolvable tobacco tablets and snuff.
Tragically, smokeless tobacco products are incorrectly perceived as safe alternatives to cigarettes. They are not; their use can be deadly. In the U.S., 13.4 percent of high school boys and 2.3 percent of high school girls use smokeless tobacco products, according to the CDC.
Tobacco is dangerous in all forms. Smokeless tobacco products contain 28 toxic and cancer-causing agents, including formaldehyde, cyanide, butanol, arsenic, polonium-210 and uranium-235. These ingredients also are found in rat poison, radioactive nuclear waste, industrial solvents and embalming fluid.
Every year, an estimated 34,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer. Thanks to the FDA’s new powers, that number may begin to decline.
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