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Excerpts from Cigar Use Rises 133%

Reuters [07/09/98]

Cigar smoking in the US rose by 133% between 1989 and 1993, according to a report.

"Regular cigar use increased in every gender, age, race, income, education, and smoking status category" during this period, write researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Rockville, Maryland.

But the rise in cigar use was particularly steep in young adults according to their study, published in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Cigar sales began to fall in the mid-1960s, reaching a low ebb by the early 1990s. However, this downward trend seems to have reversed since then, so that by 1996 the US Department of Agriculture estimated annual US cigar consumption at nearly 4.5 billion, a 30% increase over the number consumed in 1993.

The NCI authors set out to examine how many Americans were smoking cigars, and what factors characterized these smokers. They conducted telephone surveys with over 26,000 people in 22 US and Canadian cities between 1988 and 1993. Respondents were asked whether they smoked cigars, and if so, whether they were occasional (once every 6 months) or regular (3-4 times per week) cigar smokers.

Overall, the study team found that "the prevalence rate of cigar use increased from 0.9% in 1989 to 2.1% 4 years later in 1993." Cigars seemed to have become especially 'trendy' among the young -- the researchers note that in 1989 age was not a risk factor for cigar use, but by 1993 "younger respondents were more likely to be regularly and occasionally smoking cigars" than older respondents.

The authors also found that "male respondents were more than 10 times more likely to report regular cigar use than female respondents."

Cigar smoking has been linked to increased risk for cancers of the mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus, and lung. The NCI investigators are especially concerned with the rising popularity of cigars among young people, since "young adults are most vulnerable to the harmful effects of cigars through a potentially longer period of time."

And more people may have taken to smoking cigars since 1993. "The number of regular cigar smokers in the United States was about 3 million in 1993," the authors point out, "and will have increased sharply if the observed trend has continued to the present."

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