Sweet Smelling Ash

British American Tobacco is carrying out animal tests on chocolate, wine, sherry, cocoa, corn syrup, cherry juice, maple syrup and vanilla-flavored tobacco. Former British health secretary Frank Dobson remarked, "We all know that hardly anyone takes up smoking when they are grown up. That is why the tobacco industry wants to target children [with flavored tobacco]." Flavored cigarettes, which were first sold by R.J. Reynolds in 1999, are facing mounting criticism in America. Harvard School of Public Health instructor Greg Connolly said, "By masking the natural toxic products of smoke with these candy flavors, they're basically trying to turn a blow torch into rice pudding." Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor and tobacco executive John Hager has been nominated as assistant secretary of education for special education and rehabilitation services.