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The Food and Drug Administration has banned fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes as part of its effort to prevent children from starting to smoke. The agency said it will act against any company that continues to make, ship, or sell such products in the United States. The tobacco control legislation approved by Congress last spring authorized the FDA to target flavored cigarettes, and the agency said it is also examining options for regulating menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes. Almost 90% of adult smokers start the habit as teenagers, and studies have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as are smokers over 25, the FDA said. “Candy and fruit flavorings have unfortunately been some of the most egregious examples of marketing tobacco products to children, and the academy supported the inclusion of this ban in the legislation,” American Academy of Pediatrics President David Tayloe Jr. said in a statement.