Tuesday marked the start of a nationwide ban on flavored cigarettes, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The ban makes the production, shipment and sale of any cigarettes containing fruit, candy or clove flavors illegal.
This is a step taken by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA), which is a federal law that gives the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products.
According to the FDA, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The administration says that flavored cigarettes "make tobacco products especially appealing to kids and can lead to a lifetime of tobacco addiction."
Ann Pryfogle, director of health services and RN at the Health Center, said she has seen cases of smoking-related illnesses affecting Otterbein students, generally in the form of upper-respiratory infections. These affect not only smokers, Pryfogle said, but friends of smokers as well.
Sophomore art education major Scarlet Tevis views secondhand smoke as justification for the new ban on flavored cigarettes, if it achieves its goal of decreasing the number of youths who smoke. "This affects everyone in society," Tevis said. "When not just the individual person is involved, the government should step in."
Freshman equine science major, Sarah Bookner, who smokes, says the government is interfering with personal choice. "I can understand no smoking in closed areas, but when it comes to total bans on types of cigarettes, that's not fair," Bookner said.
Pryfogle is not hopeful about the ban. "If kids are wanting to smoke out of peer pressure, they still will. Banning flavored cigarettes won't make a difference," Pryfogle said.
There are other ways of combating youth smoking besides eliminating flavors that may entice younger children. Bookner cited a recent law that took effect in Ontario, Canada, which bans large displays of tobacco products in stores, known as "power walls." All cigarettes and cigars must be stored out of sight at the front counter.
Twelve Canadian provinces and territories have enacted some form of this display ban since 2002, and the results have been positive. According to a survey conducted by Health Canada, there has been a fall in smoking rates among 15-19-year-olds since the bans were put into effect.
In addition to banning flavored cigarettes, the FSPTCA plans to require tobacco manufacturers to submit the ingredients of their products to the FDA, revise warning labels on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, and eliminate use of the terms "light," "low" and "mild" on packaging without FDA approval. t&c;
