The following is a statement by American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown:
The one-year anniversary of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act brings new consumer protections that will make it increasingly difficult for the tobacco industry to recruit the next Marlboro man, woman or child. With many important provisions already in effect, we can celebrate the lives we have saved with rules restricting Big Tobacco's deceptive marketing practices, particularly towards children. The ban on candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes has brought a halt to the industry's shameful campaign to entice children with harmful products and increase their risk for heart disease, stroke and other chronic illnesses. And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now has the regulatory muscle to hold the industry accountable and ensure that children are no longer a primary target of Big Tobacco's advertising juggernaut. New color-coded cigarette packages and other manipulative products on the market intended to circumvent the ban on terms such as "light," "mild," and "low-tar" on cigarette labels will not disguise the fact that tobacco is lethal and must be treated as such.