As cigarette smoking declines, cheap look-alikes in fruity flavors are gaining substantial ground and worrying public health officials.
U.S. adult consumption of little cigars, which have lower taxes and fewer marketing restrictions than cigarettes but pose similar health risks, more than doubled from 1998 to 2006, according to the Agriculture Department.
Little cigars are part of a widening array of tobacco products that threaten to lure young people into nicotine addiction, says a report to be released today by public health groups, including the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association.
"There are more product choices" than before, says Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, lead author of the report. He says that as smoking restrictions crimp cigarette sales, cigarette companies are branching out to sell smokeless products meant to be held in the cheek and cigars that come in flavors such as mint, vanilla honey, cherry and chocolate.
"The flavorings in cigars are particularly troublesome because they make it easier to inhale and can serve as a starter product," he says.
Myers says the government has taxed and restricted cigars less than cigarettes because research into their health risks came later and they were not as widely used.
Small cigars, sized like cigarettes but in brown wrappers, are sold in packs of five, 10 or 20. Many cost less than cigarettes. "People are using them as a cheaper alternative to cigarettes," says Nik Modi, a tobacco industry analyst at UBS, a securities firm.
The little stogies appeal to young adults and women who see them as less harmful and more stylish than cigarettes, says Brian Mulholland of the retail chain Georgetown Tobacco.
The flavors attract customers, says Robb Capielo, owner of The Cigar Store, a California distributor. He says chocolate-flavored ones "definitely taste and smell" like chocolate.
Cigar smoking is associated with increased risk of cancer and heart disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. CDC says 14% of high school students smoked cigars in 2005, the most recent year available.
Attorneys general from 39 states asked the Treasury Department in 2006 to reclassify little cigars as cigarettes, which would subject them to more taxes, health warnings and marketing restrictions.
Little cigars may look like cigarettes, but they are different, says Norman Sharp of the Cigar Association of America, which represents manufacturers and importers.
He says they are wrapped in tobacco, not paper, and have a different type of tobacco inside. He says most cigar smokers don't inhale.
"The health risks are the same," says Greg Connolly, a tobacco specialist at the Harvard School of Public Health. He says many little-cigar users, accustomed to cigarettes, inhale.
Connolly attributes one-third of the decline in cigarette consumption to people switching to little cigars, smokeless products or roll-your-own cigarettes.
The report's authors back a bill pending in Congress that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. Myers says such regulation would probably treat most small cigars as cigarettes.
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