Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire: Cigars Replace Cigarettes As Teen Favorite

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health reports that while cigarette consumption declined in the United States by 10% from 2000 to 2004, cigar consumption jumped 28% during that same period.

Other studies have found that teens who smoke cigars are definitely behind some of that increase. For instance, a 2004 survey conducted in Cleveland found that 23 percent of the 4,409 teens polled preferred cigars, compared to 16 percent choosing cigarettes.

Reasons why teens think it's cool to light up a stogie include:

• Teens think cigars look fashionable.
• High-profile politicians and celebrities, such as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bill Clinton) are seen smoking them regularly.
• Your neighbor passes them out, for instance, when the family has a new baby.
• Businessmen smoke them when they cinch a business deal.
• Many states have not raised cigar taxes while cigarette taxes have skyrocketed.
• The perception that cigars are just not as dangerous as cigarettes in terms of cancer risk.

Unfortunately, that last idea is dead wrong. Cigar smoking is strongly linked to a host of deadly cancers of the lip, tongue, mouth, throat, esophagus, larynx and lung. According to data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, smoking just one or two cigars a day doubles the risk for oral and esophageal cancer and increases larynx cancer risk six-fold.

Risks rise even higher once users decide to inhale cigar smoke. Compared to nonsmokers, cigar smokers who inhale deeply face 27 times the risk of oral cancer and 53 times the risk of cancer of the larynx.

What Can Parents Do?

Parents should focus on the reasons kids light up to begin with. Peer pressure is one reason. Another is the feeling that smoking is a sign of growing up. According to John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, a national legal action anti-smoking organization based in Washington, D.C., "If parents can start to convince kids that smoking makes you stinky and smelly, not sexy and sophisticated, that can have a great impact."