TORONTO - A study from the University of Waterloo has found that more than half of Canadian teens using tobacco are going for flavoured products like bubble-gum or cherry.
The study also found that among students who reported smoking cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the survey, 32 per cent chose to puff on menthol-flavoured brands.
The study is published in the U-S Centers for Disease Control journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
It's based on a 2010-2011 Youth Smoking Survey of Grade nine to 12 students from across Canada.
Lead author Leia Minaker says the tobacco industry promotes cigarettes and other products with a variety of flavours and glitzy packaging to attract young people.
She says the danger of flavoured tobacco is that making it tastier makes it seem less like tobacco, so young people are more likely to take up the habit.
The federal government banned flavoured tobacco products weighing less than 1.4 grams -- excluding menthol products.
But Minaker says the industry has found a way around the law by slightly increasing their weight.
