Altria is Marketing Products to Kids in United States

Tobacco companies cannot stay in business unless kids get hooked on tobacco and companies are using flavors to hook kids.

The evidence is clear that flavors play an important role in youth initiation and continued use of tobacco products. A government study published in JAMA found that that 81 percent of kids who have ever tried tobacco started with a flavored product, and 80 percent of current youth tobacco users had used a flavored product in the past month.

In recent years, tobacco companies have significantly stepped up the introduction and marketing of flavored non-cigarette tobacco products, especially electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and cigars. These flavored products are undermining the nation’s overall efforts to reduce youth tobacco use and putting a new generation of kids at risk of nicotine addiction and the serious health harms that result from tobacco use.

In the United States, investigations into Altria’s efforts to market to kids have uncovered an explosion of sweet-flavored tobacco products, especially e-cigarettes and cigars.