Flavored cigars that are popular with teens contain the same additives found in Jolly Rancher candies and Kool-Aid drink mixes, lending weight to the argument that tobacco companies take aim at youth, researchers said.
Almost every flavor chemical found in tested sweets, including grape and cherry, are used in combinations in similarly flavored cigars and dipping tobacco, Portland State University researchers said in a letter posted May 7 by the New England Journal of Medicine.
More than 40 percent of middle and high school students who smoke use flavored small cigars, which are similar in size and shape to cigarettes, or use menthol cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a study last year. A 2009 law banned flavored cigarettes except menthol. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called flavored cigarettes a "gateway" for teens to become regular smokers, an agency proposal to regulate cigars wouldn't prohibit flavored ones.