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August 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) — With cigarette costs rising,
more smokers are turning to cigars or “rolling their own” to cut costs,
suggests a new U.S. government report that shows a substantial increase in
the use of non-cigarette tobacco products.
Cigarette smoking continues to decline, according to the report
released Thursday.
A modest 2.5 percent drop in cigarette use occurred between 2010 and
2011, but use of other tobacco products jumped 17 percent, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“What we have seen is the steady progress in reducing the consumption
of the most dangerous forms of tobacco, which are inhaled combustible
products, stalled because there had been a substitute of roll-your-own and
cigarette-like cigars that have increased in recent years due to loopholes
in the tax structure,” said Terry Pechacek, associate director for science
in the CDC’s Office of Smoking and Health.
“Smokers overall and youth in particular are price-sensitive and
respond to the availability of something that is cheaper that fills their
desire for a smokable product,” he added.
Pechacek noted that small cigars that look like cigarettes except for a
dark paper label have been reformulated to bypass the tax law that covers
cigarettes. “These are available for like $1.40 a pack,” he said.
Nationwide, a pack of cigarettes averages $5.98, according to the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids.
These products are also not subject to U.S. Food and Drug
Administration regulations on flavoring and labeling products “light” or
“low tar” as cigarettes are, but are just as “lethal and dangerous as
cigarettes,” Pechacek said.
The findings were published in the CDC’s Aug. 3 Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report.
Since 2008, the dramatic increase in cigar smoking and the use of pipe
tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes has offset the decline in cigarette
smoking, the agency says.
The availability of these low-priced, less-regulated products has
blunted the impact of cigarette tax increases and regulations that might
have prevented kids from starting to smoke, reduced smoking overall and
encouraged people to quit, the CDC says.
Highlights of the report include:
- A 33 percent drop in cigarette smoking from 2000 to 2011.
- A 123 percent increase in non-cigarette tobacco use from 2000 to
2011. - A 482 percent increase in pipe tobacco consumption from 2000 to
2011. - A 233 percent increase in large cigar smoking from 2000 to 2011.
Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research at the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids, said that “the report shows the length tobacco
companies will go to, to manipulate their products to avoid taxes and
avoid regulation in order to keep smokers smoking and to attract new
users.”
For example, to avoid regulations and taxes, companies have called
roll-your-own tobacco “pipe tobacco,” but it’s really the same cigarette
tobacco relabeled, McGoldrick said.
To avoid the tax on small cigars, the tobacco companies are calling
these cigarette-like cigars “large cigars,” which aren’t taxed at the same
high rate, he said.
They do this by adding weight to the product and by adding a little
tobacco to the paper wrap, which lets them define these products as large
cigars, McGoldrick said.
“The solution is to equalize the tax on all tobacco products,” he said.
“Every time we take a step to reduce smoking, the companies will do
something to get around it.”
Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer at the American Lung
Association, said his group “takes pride in the reduction in cigarette
consumption, as our efforts have played an important role in getting taxes
on cigarettes raised, and in getting the FDA its present regulatory role
with regard to tobacco products.
But with the findings from the new report, “it is clear that our work
is not yet done; the tax code and FDA’s effectiveness have to be
strengthened and rationalized, and of course we must continue our efforts
in our successful smoking cessation programs,” Edelman said. “The public
should bear in mind that, by far, tobacco use remains the leading cause of
preventable death in the U.S., exceeding 400,000 deaths per year.”
More information
To learn more about how to quit smoking, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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