The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released their first study measuring the alarming number of American youths that are using flavored tobacco products.
"More than 42 percent of middle and high school smokers reported they have used either product," FOX News reports citing the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The federal health officials used data from the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) where 19,000 students in grade six through 12 were asked about their tobacco use. The children were given an anonymous questionnaire to fill out.
"What's at stake here is another generation of kids who may face a lifetime of addiction to tobacco products," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told FOX News.
Students were asked "Are you seriously thinking about quitting the use of all tobacco?" Sixty percent of students who responded that they used flavored tobacco said they did not indent to stop.
"Flavored little cigars exploit a loophole and exploit our kids," Frieden said. "We need to take comprehensive action to reduce the availability of these products to our kids, to protect the next generation."
Danny McGoldrick, of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and research organization, told the Associated Press the tobacco industry's use of flavored product to allegedly attract young children isn't a new concept.
"The tobacco industry has a long history of using flavored products to attract kids," McGoldrick said.
"Sales of regular and flavored cigars have boomed in the last 12 years, from 6 billion to more than 13 billion annually," according to the advocacy group.
The legal age to purchase tobacco products is 18-year-old, but many stores fail to check identification, FOX News reports. Sometimes kids will have older friends purchase the flavored cigarettes for them.
Friedan claims the way tobacco companies package and market their flavored products is what drawing kids to them at stores.
"You can buy them in one, two or five packs. So, they're more accessible to kids," Frieden said. "And because of the flavors, they're very appealing to kids. It's frankly disgraceful that the industry is using this to get another generation of our kids hooked on tobacco."
