Tobacco News and Interesting Information

Charles Kenny was startled to see young children on a Woodbridge playground puffing away on what appeared to be cigarettes from a distance.

When he approached, Kenny realized they were holding plastic toys designed to look and act like cigarettes complete with red tips that glowed when the kids took a drag. Kenny, who happens to be a councilman in the township, learned the children had purchased them from a vendor at a carnival and immediately asked for the sales to stop.

"I was at the park with my kids when I noticed a few kids coming to the playground area with what looked like real cigarettes," he said. Soon dozens were holding the phony cigarettes.

Kenny's experience prompted Woodbridge officials to pass local regulations -- considered to be the first in the state -- that ban vendors licensed by the township for public events from the sale of toy cigarettes and candy products in the shape of tobacco products.

Now the township is examining an extension of the ban to all shops in the state's fifth-largest municipality, particularly candy stores that peddle the pseudo-tobacco products.

"Candy cigarettes are bad for kids," said Joel Spivak, spokesman for the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "This is potentially dangerous behavior. Several studies have shown that kids who play with candy cigarettes are more likely to become smokers when they get older."

A study released earlier this year by the University of Rochester in New York showed kids may pick up the cigarette habit as adults if they indulged in the candy version.

The townshipwide ban being considered by Woodbridge would include candy cigarettes, chocolate cigars and shredded chewing gum that simulates chewing tobacco. Each of those items is often sold in boxes or pouches meant to mimic the packaging used for tobacco products.

"We'll see if we can legally do it," Kenny said of the proposed restrictions.

Though Woodbridge might be the first municipality in New Jersey to outlaw candy shaped like tobacco products, other attempts have been made to curb similar sales in the United States.

North Dakota was the only state to successfully enact a ban in 1953, but that was lifted in 1967. A federal proposal against candy shaped like tobacco products was introduced in the House of Representatives in 1990 but did not win approval.

Ireland, however, has outlawed candy cigarettes. Parts of Canada and Australia also have restricted their sale. New Zealand banned the toy version.

Lory Zimbalatti, spokeswoman for Necco, said the Massachusetts-based candy company still sells "Candy Stix," plain white candy sticks without red tips in generic packaging, though it's not a major seller. Several years ago, the company altered the packaging to make it less resemble cigarettes, she said.

"It's a very minor product. It's on the downtrend. We don't promote it a lot," Zimbalatti said. "It's not like our Mary Janes or other popular products."

Zimbalatti said the Candy Stix are typically sold in smaller candy shops.

"None of the major retailers carry them," she said.

She said Necco does not recommend kids smoking and the company occasionally gets letters from people who have used the Candy Stix to help them stop smoking.

At the Sweet Shop across the street from the Avenel Street School 4 & 5 in Woodbridge, a box full of candy cigarettes sat alongside a crowded shelf of Snickers and lollipops. The shop owner, who declined to give his name, said adults typically buy the treats, not kids.

Allie Malcolm, 15, who was recently hanging outside the Sweet Shop with friends, said she has had the chalky-white candy cigarettes and likes the way they taste. She said she didn't see any need for a townshipwide ban.

"They are just candy and everybody likes candy," Malcolm said.