Health News
A study shows teens are dispensing with cigarettes and turning to flavored mini-cigars with fun flavors ? strawberry, chocolate, vanilla ? enticing to young palates. (National Cigar Museum picture) "Young smokers say these cigarette-size little cigars and cigarillos ? slimmer versions of big cigars ? look better and can be bought one at a time instead of spending more than $5 for a pack of cigarettes," writes Lena H. Sun of The Washington Post. "Many teens also think that they are less addictive."
After cigarettes, cigar smoking is the second most common tobacco product used by youth nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 14 percent of high school students smoke them (18.6 percent among boys and 8.8 percent among girls). Though the Food and Drug Administration banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, it did not apply to cigars. They are only available to adults 18 and older, but many stores in Kentucky do not ask for ID.
In many states, mini cigars are taxed less than cigarettes. Federal excise tax is about 39 cents on a pack of 20 cigarettes. The tax on cigars that are the size of cigarettes is 4 cents for a pack of 20. In Kentucky, the tax rate on a pack of 20 cigarettes is 60 cents. Other tobacco products, including cigars, are taxed 15 percent.
While more enticing and less expensive, they are just as dangerous as cigarettes. "You have the same cancer-causing chemicals but wrapped in flavors that don't let you experience the harsh sensation of cigar or tobacco use," said Donald Shell, interim director for Maryland's Center for Health Promotion, Education, Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation. (Read more For a fact sheet on mini-cigars, on the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services' website, click here.
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Health News
Teens turning to flavored cigars
A study shows teens are dispensing with cigarettes and turning to flavored mini-cigars with fun flavors ? strawberry, chocolate, vanilla ? enticing to young palates. (National Cigar Museum picture) "Young smokers say these cigarette-size little cigars and cigarillos ? slimmer versions of big cigars ? look better and can be bought one at a time instead of spending more than $5 for a pack of cigarettes," writes Lena H. Sun of The Washington Post. "Many teens also think that they are less addictive."After cigarettes, cigar smoking is the second most common tobacco product used by youth nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 14 percent of high school students smoke them (18.6 percent among boys and 8.8 percent among girls). Though the Food and Drug Administration banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, it did not apply to cigars. They are only available to adults 18 and older, but many stores in Kentucky do not ask for ID.
In many states, mini cigars are taxed less than cigarettes. Federal excise tax is about 39 cents on a pack of 20 cigarettes. The tax on cigars that are the size of cigarettes is 4 cents for a pack of 20. In Kentucky, the tax rate on a pack of 20 cigarettes is 60 cents. Other tobacco products, including cigars, are taxed 15 percent.
While more enticing and less expensive, they are just as dangerous as cigarettes. "You have the same cancer-causing chemicals but wrapped in flavors that don't let you experience the harsh sensation of cigar or tobacco use," said Donald Shell, interim director for Maryland's Center for Health Promotion, Education, Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation. (Read more For a fact sheet on mini-cigars, on the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services' website, click here.
- Study Finds That Teens Who Use E-cigarettes Are More Than Twice As Likely As Non-using Teens To Start Smoking Tobacco Products
image: usnews.comTeens who use electronic cigarettes may be more than twice as likely to start smoking tobacco than those who have never used the devices, according to a study at the University of Southern California. ?Recreational e-cigarette use is...
- Teen Use Of Electronic Cigarettes Has Tripled In One Year
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The number of middle- and high-school students using electronic cigarettes tripled from 2013 to 2014, surpassing the current use of all teen use of tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, according...
- 1/4 Of Ky. Adults Say They Have Tried E-cigs; Just Over Half Of Adults (but Not The E-cig Users) Want Them Taxed And Regulated
More than four in 10 Kentucky adults under age 30 have tried electronic cigarettes, and the older and better off economically Kentuckians are, the less likely they are to have tried them. Overall, one-fourth of Kentucky adults and 60 percent of current...
- Study: Teenagers May Buy Fewer Cigarettes If The Product Is Not Prominently Displayed
For Kentucky which has the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest rate of teen smokers, an study published this week in Pediatrics reports that teenagers may be less likely to buy cigarettes at convenience stores if they aren't sold...
- Study: Raising Cigarette Taxes Does Curb Even Heavy Smoking
The more you raise cigarette taxes, the less people smoke. That presumption was confirmed this week in a study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This has some resonance in Kentucky, where just last week the state?s Blue Ribbon...