Anyone who thinks the laws which, in part, are intended to protect kids and teenagers from Big Tobacco can ever get ahead and stay ahead of their marketing savvy is dreaming.

Of course, adults can use some help avoiding tobacco products, too, but kids are the focus here.

Today there is news of a new, smokeless product being tested which is much like popular breath mints. Kids already gobble those up. It is a short trip from those to a smokeless tobacco product that looks like another type of a current favorite.

Nicotine is highly addictive. For some reason, the Camel brand, which is the one under which this product is being tested, is a particularly troublesome one when kids are involved. The famous, or infamous, Joe Camel campaign was so effective the company finally pulled it when under enormous pressure to do so. It worked too, too well.

The bottom line:  R. J. Reynolds is test-marketing a new smokeless tobacco product which closely resembles popular breath mints, resembling products such as  the brand Tic-Tac breath mints. It is testing this in three cities.

The editorial board of the journal of Pediatrics will today publish a study and an editorial strenuously opposing these products as hazardous to kids’ health.

The lead researcher, Gregrory N. Connelly says…“to make it (tobacco) look like a piece of candy is recklessly playing with the health of children.” (Emphasis added)

The New York Times

“A research study and editorial to be published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics takes direct aim at a novel tobacco product that some critics say too closely resembles Tic Tac breath mints. (Emphasis added)

“Camel Orbs, pellets made of finely ground tobacco with mint or cinnamon flavoring, dissolve in the mouth, like breath mints.

“R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker behind Philip Morris, is test marketing the product, Camel Orbs, along with other dissolvable tobacco products, in three cities. It is part of a broad industry trend to create smokeless products in response to declining cigarette use and the rise of smoke-free air laws. (Emphasis added)

“The study says Orbs, pellets made of finely ground tobacco with mint or cinnamon flavoring, are packed with nicotine and can poison children and lure young people to start using tobacco. The pellets dissolve in the mouth, like breath mints. “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug, and to make it look like a piece of candy is recklessly playing with the health of children,” the lead researcher, Gregory N. Connolly, a professor with the Harvard School of Public Health, said in an interview.”

Source: New York Times, April 19, 2010

Citation: Journal of Pediatrics, Publication date, April 19, 2010. Other citation information not located.