Researchers say that adult smokers were more likely to have eaten candy cigarettes as kids than nonsmokers, indicating that candy cigarettes may desensitize kids about future smoking.

Jonathan Klein of the University of Rochester and colleagues surveyed 25,887 U.S. adults and found that 12 percent of current and former smokers had never used candy cigarettes, compared to 22 percent of adults who never smoked. Among current and former smokers, 22 percent said they had consumed candy cigarettes often or very often, compared to 14 percent of those who never smoked.

"Candy and gum look-alike products allow children to respond to tobacco marketing and advertising long before they are old enough to smoke a cigarette," said Klein. "The continued existence of these products helps promote smoking as a culturally or socially acceptable activity."

Candy cigarettes have been restricted in the U.K., Australia and Canada, but not in the U.S., although some retailers, like Wal-Mart, refuse to sell them.

The study appears in the July 2007 issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.