Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Jan 4, 2007 -- THE State Government is lobbying the Commonwealth to ban pastel-coloured, fruit-flavoured cigarettes aimed at recruiting young people into a life-long habit.

But anti-tobacco advocates say NSW itself has the power to ban the teen-branded products.

In November South Australia became the first state to ban the packs - which are colour-coded and illuminate under fluorescent lights - while Tasmania is now moving to do so.

NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Health Paul McLeay said the Commonwealth should look at banning the sale of DJ Mix cigarettes, but a spokesman for Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Christopher Pyne said it was a state responsibility.

"The NSW Government is urging the Commonwealth to take national leadership and ban cigarettes with distinctive fruity or sweet tastes, making them attractive to younger people," Mr McLeay said.

Ash Australia's Anne Jones said the State Government had the power to stop the sale. "I think it is laziness and is it complacency," she said. "Ultimately it is a Commonwealth issue, but if they are not going to act it is the rights of the states and territory governments to start taking action."

Ms Jones said the cigarettes are targeted at young girls, with scents that mimic bubblegum and flavours that taste like strawberry milk.

"They choose a flavour or appearance young people are already familiar with," she said. "They are fairly obviously marketed at young girls, they are pastel, they are perfumed, they masquerade as a slightly healthy alternative because they are fruit flavoured.

"They are constantly engineered to be more palatable and more addictive and more attractive."

Ms Jones said while NSW had high rates of smokers quitting the habit, young women were quitting at a slower rate than young men.