Rising sales of other tobacco products (OTP) than cigarettes have offset the decline in cigarette sales by 30 per cent in the United States, according to a report by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers collected governmental data between 2000 and 2007 and found out that cigarettes sales declined 18 per cent, from 21.1 billion packs to 17.4 billion packs, but at the same time, sales of non-cigarette tobacco products such as moist snuff, roll-your-own tobacco and small cigars increased by the equivalent of 1.1 billion packs of cigarettes. Non-cigarette tobacco products were made up of 714 million kg moist snuff, 256 million kg roll-your-own tobacco, and 130 million small cigars. 
The researchers also found out that the weekly cost for a typical user of premium moist snuff is 55 per cent less than for a typical cigarette smoker.
The report, funded by the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking advocacy group, appeared in the 11 June issue of the Journal of the America Medical Association. The group was created by and is currently funded by the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. (pi)