Restricting flavored tobacco products
Tobacco industry adds flavorings to make tobacco products more attractive, especially to young people. A generous range of flavors have been developed for different smoking products, including conventional cigarettes, waterpipe tobacco, heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, etc. Some countries have imposed regulations to reduce the impact of flavored tobacco products.
By reducing or masking the harshness and bitterness of tobacco, flavorings makes tobacco products more palatable and quitting more difficult. To lure youth to smoke, the tobacco industry continually develops youth-appealing tobacco products, including flavored tobacco products. Internal documents of the industry revealed that the industry had paid huge efforts in the past few decades to identify how flavorings work and what flavors work. Nowadays, flavors of tobacco product are not limited to ordinary flavors such as fruit, candy and menthol flavors. Tobacco products in conceptional flavors such as “arctic air” and “tropical breeze”, which may trigger youth’s curiosity about smoking, are also available on the market.
The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 9 requires Parties to the treaty to regulate the contents of tobacco products, recommending prohibition of or restrictions on ingredients that may modify the palatability of tobacco products. Some counties have implemented or are planning regulations on flavored tobacco products. Flavored tobacco regulations are summarized as follows.
| Countries | Regulations |
| Australia |
Bans fruit and confectionery flavors in cigarettes Planning to ban all flavors in cigarettes |
| Brazil (to be implemented), Ethiopia and Uganda | Ban all flavors in tobacco leaf products |
| Canada and Turkey | Ban all flavors in cigarettes, and non-menthol flavors in little cigars, cigars (under 6g) and blunt wraps. |
| European Union and the United Kingdom | Ban all characterizing flavors in cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco |
| Mauritania | Bans ingredients that improve the taste of tobacco leaf products |
| Niger | Bans non-menthol flavors in tobacco leaf products |
| Senegal | Bans all characterizing aromatic agents in tobacco leaf products |
| Singapore | Bans fruit-flavored waterpipe tobacco |
| United States |
Bans non-menthol characterizing flavors in cigarettes Planning to ban menthol flavors in cigarettes, and characterizing flavors other than tobacco flavors in cigars |
*Definition of characterizing flavors varies, but commonly includes fruit, confectionery, spice flavors, etc.
The tobacco industry always undermines tobacco control measures with different tactics. New products are developed to circumvent flavor regulations, including developing other flavoured tobacco products to replace cigarettes; tobacco products in new menthol flavours; and accessories that allow addition of flavors into tobacco products, such as flavored filters and wraps.
Without any regulations on flavoured tobacco product, many smokers in Hong Kong initiated smoking with flavoured cigarettes, and flavoured cigarettes are particularly appealing to youth smokers and female smokers. According to Thematic Household Survey Report No. 75, nearly 30% of current smokers had flavoured cigarettes at first smoking, and around 60% of current smokers aged 20-39 years and 70% of female current smokers smoke flavoured cigarettes. Flavoured tobacco products play a key role in smoking uptake and addiction in these vulnerable groups. To effectively eliminate the appeal of flavoured tobacco and reduce smoking uptake especially among youth, the Government should ban all flavoured tobacco products and accessories.
Reference: Cancer Council Victoria and Global review of tobacco product flavor