ALBANY, N.Y. – If the American Cancer Society succeeds, flavored tobacco products could soon disappear from New York convenience store shelves, the Huffington Post reports. The group is pushing the state to ban all candy- and fruit-flavored tobacco products, including flavored chewing tobacco, cigarillos and water-pipe tobacco. Those products would only be available in tobacco stores.

Currently, no state has such a ban, although New York City and Providence, Rhode Island, have enacted similar restrictions. Maine forbids the sale of “premium” flavored cigars (which are larger than cigarillos), and Maryland is considering a comparable law.

“If New York acts, it would be the first state in the nation, and turbocharge efforts nationally,” said Blair Horner, vice president of advocacy at the American Cancer Society and Cancer Action Network of New York and New Jersey. 

The New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS) opposes the ban because: 

1. It would drive the sale of these products underground.
2. It’s an all-out ban, as opposed to a regulation.
3. It leapfrogs FDA regulation.
4. It’s a solution disproportionate to the problem. 
5. It inexplicably exempts one channel of retail trade. 
6. It unjustifiably exempts certain tobacco products. 

“As parents, citizens and business owners, we share the sponsors’ commitment to keeping tobacco out of the hands of children,” James Calvin, NYACS president, told NACS Daily. “Our good-faith, preventative efforts have helped dramatically curb the incidence of underage tobacco sales in retail stores.”

The number of flavored tobacco products has jumped over the past five years, and during the same time period, convenience stores have reached a 94% compliance rate in adhering to state laws regarding sale of tobacco products to minors, said Calvin.

In September 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned candy-, clove- and fruit-flavored cigarettes as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.