Candy and bubble-gum cigarettes encourage children to experiment with the real thing later and should be banned, researchers say.
"Parents and public health professionals would not sanction toy marijuana joints or crack cocaine," they wrote in the January issue of Pediatrics. "Similarly, toy cigarettes should not be allowed to enter children's play."However, earlier research suggests the effect on smoking later in life is negligible, outweighed by the influence of friends, family and TV and movie stars.
The new study found that in families with at least one parent who smoked, children who had bought candy cigarettes at least two times were twice as likely to experiment with tobacco as children who'd bought the candy once or not at all.
Children of non-smokers who had bought candy cigarettes at least twice were four times as likely to have tried real cigarettes.
The study was conducted among 195 seventh-graders. The lead author was Dr. Jonathan D. Klein of the University of North Carolina School.