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OCR Page 1 of 14HHS NEWS
TOBACCO-
Cigars
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: IG Press Office
Friday, Feb. 26, 1999
(202) 619-1028
HHS INSPECTOR GENERAL WARNS
OF CIGAR USE AMONG TEENS
The Department of Health and Human Services today issued a pair of reports by the HHS
Inspector General warning about cigar use among teenagers and recommending mandatory
warning labels similar to those on cigarettes and other tobacco products.
"These reports add to our department's growing body of literature about the dangers of
cigar smoking," said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "The new information in these studies
will help us with our ongoing efforts to reduce teenage smoking and youth access to tobacco
products of all kinds, and I am pleased that the Surgeon General has agreed to review the issues
these reports raise."
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) study on "Patterns of Use and Perception of
Risk" included 18 focus groups involving a mix of 227 young cigar users and non-users of
different socioeconomic backgrounds from urban and suburban areas across the country.
Thirteen of the focus groups comprised high school students, four involved junior high students,
and one was made up of college students. The purpose of the focus groups was to explore
patterns of cigar use among the participants and their peers. Specific questions focused on
initiation, frequency, and variations of use, as well as the motivations and influences to use
cigars.
The study found that more than a third of the teenagers who participated in the focus
groups admitted to having smoked a cigar in the past 30 days, and half of the smokers said they
expect to be cigar users five years into the future. They further reported widespread cigar use
and experimentation among their peers and disclosed that some teens create modified cigars
called "blunts" by removing some or all of the core tobacco of a cigar and replacing it with
marijuana.
"These findings are of profound concern and require our immediate action to inform the
public about the health risks associated with cigar smoking," said HHS Inspector General June
Gibbs Brown. "There is a great need for additional research on cigars, including prevalence,
patterns of use, health effects, the addictive potential of cigars as well as the practice of
blunting."
"There is no safe form of tobacco," said Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher. "We should
require the same sort of warning labels on cigars that we already require on packages of
cigarettes and spit tobacco. The absence of such a warning on cigars could lead consumers to
erroneously conclude that cigars do not carry health risks."
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