Bye, Bye Flavored Butts

America's now one step closer to getting kids -- and everyone, for that matter -- to kick cigarettes to the curb.

According to a story in the Washington Post, a federal law took effect Tuesday that bans the manufacturing, importation and distribution of candy-, fruit-, and clove-flavored cigarettes. The regulation is one of the first signs of the FDA's new authority to regulate tobacco, the result of a bill that President Obama signed into law in June.

By banning flavored cigarettes, lawmakers hope to deter kids and teens from smoking. Dr. Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, told the Washington Post that 17-year-old smokers are about three times as likely to puff on a flavored cigarette than smokers older than 25 years old. Members of the FDA also pointed out that about 90 percent of adult smokers picked up the habit as teens, so this ban will help stop the 3,600 young people who start smoking every day.

The law signed in June gives the FDA the ability to ban products, reduce nicotine levels and cover cigarette cartons with huge warning labels. Here's hoping that the flavored-cigarette ban along with other restrictions the FDA will enact in the future will help America kick its smoking habit once and for all.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.