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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

KY Kids can Breathe Easier as Flavored Cigarettes Get the Boot

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Monday, September 28, 2009   

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Federal regulators now have more authority to regulate what goes into cigarettes, and the Food and Drug Administration is flexing its new muscle by banning flavored cigarettes from being made, imported, distributed, or sold in the United States. It applies to such spice flavors as cloves as well as candy and fruit flavors, though not menthol.

Since most adult smokers have started as teenagers, Paul Kiser, director of Kentucky Action, says the ban will help stop teens from picking up the habit in the first place.

"This is a step in the right direction; it's by no means a magic bullet that's going to solve our youth smoking problem, but it's another piece of the puzzle to help reduce the overall smoking rates of youth in the state."

Prior to the ban, cigarette makers had contended that flavored cigarettes weren't marketed to children, but Kiser says his group never bought the industry claim that kids weren't the target.

"The industry would look you dead in the eye and swear to you that these products were not aimed at children, that these were products for adult smokers to try something new."

Kiser says what matters is that kids likely won't crave what they don't see.

"Getting these off the shelves is a huge step to reduce one more enticement."

Kiser says that, according to 2008 numbers from the Centers for Disease Control,, nearly 7,700 people die every year in Kentucky from tobacco-related diseases, and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates that at current smoking rates, 107,000 Kentucky kids now under 18 will eventually die prematurely from smoking.


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