It comes in a shiny black box with flowery hot pink or teal borders. Camel No. 9, the name says in lettering that looks suspiciously like that of a famous perfume. "Light and luscious" reads the enticing slogan.

"Loathsome and lethal" would be more accurate. Camel No. 9 cigarettes, introduced in January 2007 by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), are the latest entry in Big Tobacco's long history of marketing cigarettes to women and girls. The result has been devastating for women's health.

While RJR claims that it is marketing only to women, its advertising and promotions tell a different story. Slick ads for Camel No. 9 have run in magazines popular with girls, including Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and InStyle. Promotional giveaways include berry lip balm, cell phone jewelry, cute little purses and wristbands, all in hot pink. As the Oregonian newspaper put it, the company that once marketed to kids with the Joe Camel cartoon character is doing it again with "Barbie Camel."

Camel No. 9 continues a long history of tobacco industry targeting of women and girls that dates back to the 1920s. In the 1960s, Philip Morris introduced the first brand specifically manufactured for women, Virginia Slims, with the marketing slogans "You've come a long way, baby," "It's a woman thing," and "Find Your Voice."

These marketing campaigns cynically equated smoking with independence, sophistication and beauty and preyed on the unique social pressures that women and girls face. Starting in the 1970s and continuing today, women have been targeted with advertising for so-called "light" and "low-tar" brands, which implied claims of reduced risk that the tobacco companies knew to be false.

As result, tobacco use takes a devastating toll on women's health:

• More than 178,000 women die of tobacco-caused diseases each year.
• Since 1987, lung cancer has been the leading cancer killer among women, surpassing breast cancer.
• Heart disease is the overall leading cause of death among women, and smoking accounts for one of every five deaths from heart disease.
• 23 percent of high school girls and 18.1 percent of women currently smoke.

The tobacco industry's aggressive targeting of women and girls demands an equally aggressive response:

• Congress should pass legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products. The FDA should have authority to crack down on marketing that appeals to children and misleads the public and to take other steps to reduce tobacco use and save lives.
• State leaders can reduce tobacco use by women and girls – and the population as a whole – by increasing tobacco taxes, passing laws requiring smoke-free workplaces and public places, and funding tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
• Women's magazines, especially those with high youth readership, should stop running ads for tobacco products. Take action today to tell Vogue magazine to stop running such ads.