FDA Warns Web Companies Not To Sell Flavored Cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland is accusing more than a dozen web-based companies of violating a new ban on candy, fruit and clove-flavored cigarettes.

The agency says 17-year-old smokers are three times more likely than adult smokers to use flavored cigarettes. And since nearly 90 percent of adult smokers start lighting up as teenagers, the ban will help prevent more than one million young people from starting the habit each year.

The FDA's ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distributing flavored cigarettes does not include menthol cigarettes or some flavored tobacco products such as cigars. The agency says it is studying those products.

Rebecca Sheir reports...