While preparing for this month's newsletter I had been looking for the stats of economic & ethnic break-downs of cigar smokers. Basically from what I can tell no one has done that study. What I came across was how the CDC (Center for Disease Control) explains cigars on their website. Now, we all know that the CDC would never have an agenda just so they could pad their budget... would... they?
Now the CDC defines cigars as, "A cigar is defined as a roll of tobacco wrapped in leaf tobacco or in a substance that contains tobacco (as opposed to a cigarette, which is defined as a roll of tobacco wrapped in paper or in a substance that does not contain tobacco)." Ok, that's pretty accurate. So far so good. They then define the types of cigars as large cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars.
But then they give the warning, "Cigars contain the same toxic and carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes and are not a safe alternative to cigarettes." Are you kidding me! These idiots don't know that there is nothing in cigars but LEAF! And they site as their sources for this information as, "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the National Cancer Institute." Oh, come on. No independent non-biased study? Bad science is bad science you bozos.
They then state that in 2009 the percentage of users (2009): 5.4% of all adults in the United States 9.1% of adult males in the United States 1.9% of adult females in the United States 7.7% of African American adults 7.2% of American Indian/Alaska Native adults 1.5% of Asian American adults 4.9% of Hispanic adults 5.3% of white adults
High School Students Percentage of U.S. high school students who were current cigar users in 2009
10.9% of all students in grades 9–12 6.7% of female students in grades 9–12 15.0% of male students in grades 9–2
Middle School Students Percentage of U.S. middle school students who were current cigar users in 2009
3.9% of all U.S. students in grades 6–8 3.2% of female students in grades 6–8 4.6% of male students in grades 6–8
Overall In 2009, an estimated 13.3 million people (or 5.3% of people 12 years of age or older) in the United States were current cigar users.
Really, middle school kids... 12 year olds?! The only middle school kids I've ever seen smoking a cigar were from the big gypsy trailer park in Orange, Tx. Then they list the two largest American Cigar producers as being Swisher International (Swisher Sweets® and Swisher Little®) and Middleton (Black & Mild®). Notice these are Machine made and not Premium Cigars. No comparison what-so- ever.
So they are basing all their information on 2 machine made cigar companies who basically produce large cigarettes and cite sources of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, JC. Cigar Industry 's The Maxwell Report and the Federal Trade Commission. No independent study. No true scientific method. No un-biased approach.