People in the U.S. are smoking more cigars and pipe tobacco even as cigarette use declines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Pipe tobacco smoking increased more than fivefold and cigar use more than tripled from 2000 to 2011, according to findings published Thursday by the CDC in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Total consumption of all smoked tobacco products declined 27.5 percent during the period while the reduction was only 0.8 percent from 2010 to 2011, the Atlanta-based health agency reported.
Cigarette consumption continued its more than decade-long decrease, dropping 2.5 percent from 2010 to 2011.
“We are making less progress,” said Terry Pechacek, the associate director for science in the CDC’s Office of Smoking and Health. “The smoke from a burned product is just about as dangerous, no matter what source it comes from.”
The CDC, in its report, and anti-smoking advocates attributed the increase in cigar and pipe smoking to changes in tobacco company practices and federal tax policies that make the products less expensive than cigarettes.
