Cigars rival cigarettes in popularity at high schools and one in five students use a tobacco product, according to the 2013 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Cigarette use among high school students at 12.7 per cent and cigar use at 11.9 per cent were the two most commonly reported tobacco products. Smokeless tobacco was next at 5.7 per cent, followed by hookahs (5.2 per cent), e-cigarettes at 4.5 per cent and pipes (4.1 per cent). Nearly 23 per cent of those surveyed said they currently use a tobacco product and 46 per cent said they had tried a product.
Cigar use among non-Hispanic black students was nearly 50 per cent higher than cigarette use, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in an analysis of the survey that included 18,406 high school and middle school students at 187 selected schools. Middle schoolers reporting current use of a tobacco product represented 6.5 per cent of those surveyed. Survey data are used to monitor the effectiveness of government tobacco control policies.
“Although substantial progress has been made in decreasing cigarette use among youths, overall tobacco use is still high”, CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated 14 Nov.