Quebec - Teens Switch from Cigarettes to Cigarillos..

November 27, 2007 - More and more Quebec teens are giving up cigarettes. But many of them are switching to cigars and cigarillos. And that has health advocates worried. The Quebec Institute on Statistics says the number of teens smoking cigarettes has gone down by 4 per cent in two years: about 15 per cent lighting up. But cigars are bucking that trend, with sales of cigarillos in candy flavours like raspberry, peach and mint chocolate up 300% in Quebec. And kids are eating them up: 22 per cent up from 18 per cent since 2004. Anti-smoking groups like the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health fear their popularity could fuel a kid-friendly smoking revival. "It's almost like candies. A teenager can see that it's something you can try like chewing gum." Spokesman Mario Bujold. "You can get addicted to cigarillos as well as to cigarettes." They can be also be bought as singles at any depanneur (convenience store), something Bujold says needs to be strictly enforced or changed: to be sold like cigarettes, in packs, behind the counter, complete with big, frightening warnings of health risks. (Shuyee Lee, CJAD, Montreal's Newstalk Leader, 11/21/2007) More background:Cigarillos: Big Tobacco's Candy-Coated Chicanery, flavoured cigars send teens smoke signals. Quebec moves to ban singles", John Stobo, National Review of Medicine, Patients & Practice, volume 4 no. 8, 4/30/2007. See related News Briefs: November 24, 2007, November 22, 2007, November 20, 2007, November 2, 2007, and May 16, 2007.