Tobacco Makers Exploit Fruit Loopholes in FDA Law

Cigarette makers have come up with a way to get around the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule banning flavored cigarettes. They have started making small, filtered cigars similar in size to cigarettes, that are flavored with clove, vanilla and cherry. Cigarettes are wrapped in paper, while cigars are wrapped in tobacco leaves or paper that contains reconstituted tobacco. Clove cigarettes, often known as "kreteks," are imported. The new, small cigars come 12 to a pack, fewer than the usual 20 in a pack of cigarettes, and cost about half as much as a pack of cigarettes. The FDA's ban on flavored cigarettes goes into effect at the end of September, but so far doesn't include cigars. The ban on flavorings was instituted on the belief that it would reduce the appeal of smoking to youth. Clove cigarettes became a fad among U.S. teenagers in the 1980s, and a June 18, 1985 Los Angeles Times article linked the eugenol in clove cigarettes to an increase in hospitalizations among teenagers for respiratory distress.