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THURSDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials issued new federal rules Thursday cracking down on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to children and teens.
New national bans on vending machine sales of cigarettes, free samples, tobacco company sponsorship of sporting events and even full-color cigarette ads are all part of the rules issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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The rules, which go into effect June 22, "will help our kids stay healthy by making it harder for tobacco companies to target them with harmful and addictive products," Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said during an afternoon press conference.
Everyday, almost 4,000 children under 18 try their first cigarette and 1,000 become daily smokers, Sebelius noted. "Despite a ban on direct marketing to young Americans, tobacco companies have still found ways to reach out to them," she said.
It's not an accident that the brands that spend the most on ads -- Marlboro, Camel and Newport -- are the most popular among children than adults, Sebelius added. This week, a study published in the journal Pediatrics charged tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds with marketing Camel No. 9 cigarettes to teen girls, something the company denied.
The new federal rules should "make it harder for companies to advertise tobacco products and harder for kids to buy them," Sebelius said.
The rules take effect less than a year after the passage of the landmark Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which authorized the FDA to regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products.
The new FDA rules limit the sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to people 18 and over, adding to rules already in place in many states. The rules also prohibit the sale of cigarettes in packages of less than 20.
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