First Focus on Children submitted the following comment to the Food and Drug Administration to express our strong support for their proposed rule to prohibit all characterizing flavors in cigars.

Excerpt from the Comment:

Prohibiting flavored cigars will reduce initiation and use of cigars, especially among young people. Flavors play a key role in attracting youth to start using tobacco products, including cigars. Flavors increase the appeal of cigars and make them easier to use by improving their taste and masking the harshness of tobacco products. Flavors in cigars promote initiation in young people and increase the likelihood that they will become regular cigar smokers. Flavored cigars have proliferated in recent years and are sold in hundreds of kid-friendly flavors like wild berry, brownie, and tropical twist. According to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey, cigars are the second most popular product among high school students after e-cigarettes.v Nearly 75% of youth cigar smokers report that they smoke cigars “because they come in flavors I like.”

Read the full comment.