麻豆传媒

As more local governments consider tobacco flavor bans like the one in early June, tobacco companies are increasingly labeling flavored little cigars and other tobacco products with names that are ambiguous and non-descriptive to get around these restrictions, CDC researchers report.

They found that between 2012 and 2016, cigar sales in the U.S. increased by 29%, driven by a 78% increase in sales of inexpensive, small cigars that come in a variety of fruit, candy, and other flavors, and are sold as "cigarillos."

During the same 5-year period, the number of cigarillo products identified by Universal Product Code (UPC) with so-called concept flavor descriptors increased from 17 to 46, the investigators reported online in .

Products with concept-descriptive names may still contain flavorings, but the brand name does not describe the flavor.

For example, the cigarillo brand Swisher Sweets sells little cigars in dozens of different flavors clearly stated on the packaging, including widely recognized flavors like "cherry," and "grape," and more exotic flavors like "watermelon rum" and "mango guava."

But the brand also markets cigarillos labeled with the flavor non-descriptive concept names "Sweets," "Green Sweets," "Black," and "Diamond."

The Black & Mild cigar brand markets cigarillos and cigars under concept-descriptive names such as "Royale," "Jazz," and "Casino."

A of 16 non-cigarette tobacco products labeled with only concept descriptors found flavoring compounds in all but two of the products.

A cigarillo described simply as "Poco Loco" on the label showed chemical evidence of 17 different flavoring compounds, including vanilla, citrus, and raspberry. A product with the name "TaTa" contained 18 different flavor compounds and Black & Mild's "Royale" cigar contained 10 different flavorings, the chemical analysis found.

One of the study authors, Brian A. King, PhD, MPH, of the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health, explained that concept flavor labeling may effectively circumvent local tobacco flavor bans because the bans tend to list specific flavors or flavor categories (fruit, candy, etc.) as a way of identifying products to be removed from the market.

"The tobacco industry has been consistent in selectively modifying products as regulatory policies have evolved, and this is just another chapter in that book," he told 麻豆传媒.

Cheap, flavored cigarillos, little cigars, and cigars exploded onto the U.S. market after all flavors, with the exception of tobacco and menthol, were banned from conventional cigarettes as part of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

"Flavored tobacco product sales restrictions are an increasingly important and useful strategy to address tobacco use, especially youth initiation," King said. "But it is important that the broad diversity of products out there, including these concept [labeled] products, are included."

The study was conducted by the CDC team in conjunction with researchers from the nonprofit group Research Triangle Institute International of Research Triangle Park, N.C.