Many Young People Are Lured by Cigars, U.S. Warns

WASHINGTON —  In its first look at cigar-smoking among teenagers, the federal government reported Thursday that more than a quarter of the nation’s young people--including a sizable number of girls--have smoked at least one stogie during the past year.

Government officials speculate that many teenagers are unaware of the health dangers of cigars because they typically are not inhaled. Yet cigars--currently enjoying a renaissance in popular culture--can contain as much as 40 times more tar and nicotine than cigarettes and are a major cause of mouth cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC, in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, said a survey of 16,417 youths age 14-19 showed that 26.7% had experimented with cigars, which translates nationwide to an estimated 6 million teenagers. Based on the findings within the study group, the CDC projected that 37% of the nation’s male teenagers have tried cigars, as have 16% of the females.

The CDC, noting that the surgeon general’s health warnings are not required for cigars, recommended that “immediate efforts . . . be made to publicize the health risks of cigar smoking, deglamorize the product in magazines, movies and television programs and protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.”

But Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Assn. of America, said 90% of the cigars sold in this country carry a health warning label, the result of a 1988 agreement between the industry and the California attorney general. “The only way the cigar industry could comply in California was to label them nationwide,” Sharp said.

In separate studies, the CDC found that 14.5% of students in grades 9-12 in Massachusetts had smoked at least one cigar in the past month, and more than 70% of ninth-graders from two New York counties who had smoked cigars recently had purchased their own.

While the recent Food and Drug Administration regulations restricting access to tobacco products do not apply to cigars, laws in most states forbid selling cigars to anyone younger than 18.

The CDC said that if the cigar-smoking trend among youths continues, the government should consider restricting minors’ access to cigars, as it does now for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

Federal rules banning the sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to those 18 and younger became effective in February.

Sharp said the industry “strongly discourages cigar-smoking by kids.” He added: “It’s an adult custom.”

Indeed, cigar-smoking is enjoying a burst of popularity among both men and women with the growth of “cigar bars” and “cigar evenings,” as well as magazines such as Cigar Aficionado, which began publishing in 1992 and recently became a bimonthly publication.