Back-door cigarette marketing?

At a time when marketing restrictions make it harder for tobacco manufacturers to reach the youth market, a number of new candy- and liqueur-flavored tobacco products are hitting the market. A review of internal tobacco industry documents published in the November/December 2005 issue of Health Affairs showed that the industry has long sought to target youth through new flavors, with one document stating that young people's interest in unusual flavors "may indicate new opportunities for enhanced-flavor tobacco products that could leverage [brand's] current strength among younger adult smokers." The authors write that flavored cigarettes can promote youth smoking initiation and help young occasional smokers become daily smokers by reducing or masking the unpleasant taste of tobacco smoke. The authors add there is little information on the potential health effects of the flavorings themselves.