Call to ban sweet smoking additives

CRAIG SIMCOX/Dominion Post

SWEET AS: Critics say the additives make cigarettes more palatable to youngsters.

Relevant offers

The Health Ministry has been ordered to investigate urgently flavoured tobacco and products to make cigarettes taste of fruit.

Action on Smoking and Health and health officials say additives such as Tasty Puff drops - which come in Awesome Apple, Blueberry Thrill and Joosy Froot flavours and are designed to be added to cigarettes - should be banned because they mask the taste of tobacco and entice youngsters to smoke.

Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said law changes might be needed to make them illegal and he would ask the ministry to investigate urgently. "I'm not in favour of anything that encourages people to smoke, particularly if it makes it attractive or more palatable for young people," he said.

Northland District Health Board smokefree co-ordinator Bridget Rowse said there should also be restrictions on cigarette packet covers that masked graphic images such as gangrenous toes and diseased lungs that were introduced to packaging in February.

Tobacco firms were deliberately targeting young people to replace customers as more adults quit the habit, she said.

"With more people becoming smoke-free and increasing government services available, tobacco companies need to look for new smokers and that's our youth."

Retailers should "use their social conscience" and voluntarily withdraw the flavoured products from sale until they were included under smokefree laws, she said.

Ash director Ben Youdan said the additives should be banned as young people would be more likely to experiment with them.

It would make that first cigarette taste acceptable when normally it would be disgusting, he said. The products also posed a health risk. Wicked Habits owner Scott Mesarich said he got the products from the United States.

The retailer's website did not target under-18s and clearly stated the products were for adults. "If they are under that age and they are buying it we don't know for certain, the same as any website." Dominion Post

- © Fairfax NZ News