Cigar sales more than doubled between 2000 and 2021, largely driven by smaller flavored cigars. These cigars now make up about half the cigar market, with flavors ranging from fruit punch and grape to “Berry Fusion,” “Iced Donut” and “Cherry Dynamite.” They're colorfully packaged, widely available, heavily marketed and priced as cheaply as 3 for 99 cents, increasing their appeal to kids.
These flavored products have helped make cigars the second most popular tobacco product among youth, after e-cigarettes.
About 500,000 youth currently use cigars. And each day, more than 800 youth try cigar smoking for the first time. Black youth have the highest rates of cigar smoking, with Black high school students using cigars at 1.5x the rate of White high schoolers. This is no accident, as Big Tobacco heavily markets these cigars in Black communities.
The report comes as the FDA is about to issue a final rule prohibiting flavored cigars.
The FDA announced a proposed rule in April 2022 based on evidence that cigar use poses serious health risks, flavors increase the appeal of cigars and make them easier to use, especially for youth, and removing flavored cigars from the market would reduce the number of youth who smoke cigars. Flavors are already prohibited in cigarettes except for menthol-flavored cigarettes, which the FDA is also proposing to prohibit.
These rules will have a profound benefit for public health and the FDA should finalize and implement them without delay. The report also calls on states and cities to continue their growing efforts to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products.
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