LATEST FLAME : A new generation is getting fired up over cigars. But when the smoke clears, will health concerns win out over fashion? : More young men and women are lighting up, whether for pure pleasure, ritual or as a statement or accessory.

Like most self-respecting guys in their 20s, Gerald Lane worries about becoming his dad. The 9-to-5, the tired clothes and the annual vacation to the usual place. No chance, don’t want any of it.

But Lane, 24, who lives right off the ocean in Sunset Beach, does like to emulate his father in one way. The old man loves cigars, the fatter the better, and so does Lane.

“I used to hate the smell of them; now that’s all changed,” he mumbled, a big Jamaican job wedged between his teeth. “We’ll light up together, sit down and watch a game or something.

“It’s kind of like a truce between us.”

Lane has company in his appreciation.

While cancer specialists shout warnings about health risks, and those who hate the odor recoil in the cigar’s wake, more people, especially those in their 20s, are taking up the habit.

Whether a wispy fad or something solid, cigars are glowing more than ever. Celebrities are helping build the fire, with longtime smokers such as Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger being joined by photo-friendly newcomers. Even actress Drew Barrymore and model Linda Evangelista, not women you’d think would like to be seen through a haze, say they love them.

Indeed, in the youth crowd, women apparently enjoy cigars almost as much as men do. Restaurants, nightclubs and bars in Orange County and beyond now offer co-ed cigar-tasting dinners--called smokers--for the truly hooked. There are newsletters, at least one glossy cigar magazine, and even a major league racehorse was named after them. Cigar, a dominant symbol if ever there was one, recently added the Breeder’s Cup Classic to his string of turf victories.

To some, there’s nothing finer than a good meal with friends bookended by expensive smoke and liquor, another bow to the sweet life. Others confess that it’s more personal, and they quietly light up at home, perhaps while sipping brandy and reading a book.

Then there’s the club set, who have to be with it; a cigar imparts a thin cloud of style to its owner. And, finally, some fans just think they’re funny, a stinking good evocation of Hemingway, Castro, mobsters, Borscht Belt comics and David Letterman.

“It’s really about my dad’s generation, the guys who grew up in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” Lane said. “That makes it kind of an in-joke. [But] once you start tasting them, you get into them for different reasons.”

The popularity surge is supported by groups who have markedly different agendas. The American Cancer Society agrees with the Tobacco Institute, a Washington-based lobbying group, that the smoke is getting thicker out there.

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“I’m in my early 30s, and among people my age and younger, smoking cigars is the cool thing to do,” said Margaret Edwards, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society in Orange County. “I went to the Taste of Newport, and there were cigars everywhere. It’s a big climbing thing for social status.”

Tom Lauria from the Tobacco Institute’s media relations wing said sales of cigars are way up. Although the institute doesn’t track specific numbers, he claimed that about 2.3 billion cigars were sold last year, up from “just 1 billion sold a few years ago.” The figures were echoed by a recent NBC news report.

“It used to be that cigarettes were 96% of the market, with the remaining 4% divided among cigars, pipe [and other] tobacco,” he said. “Now, cigarettes are down to 94%, which doesn’t seem like a huge drop, but in a $47-billion market, that’s considerable.”

Any talk of higher sales is bad news to Dr. Robert Eagan, a former smoker and the medical director of St. Joseph Hospital’s regional cancer center in Orange. While cigars may be better for you than cigarettes--simply because they tend not to be inhaled--all smoke is dangerous smoke.

“Cigar smokers have a three times higher risk than nonsmokers of getting cancer,” Eagan explained. “And if you smoke cigarettes, a pipe and cigars, your risk goes up 10 times . . . the [cigar] smoker who inhales is in big trouble.”

That worries Eric Bassett, a 29-year-old from Newport Beach, but not enough to stop him. Bassett considers himself a recreational user who smokes only a few cigars a week, mostly on the golf course (another growing fad among those in their 20s) or at smokers. His favorite smoker is the at El Torito Grill in Fashion Island Newport Beach, and his favorite cigars are Fonsecas from the Dominican Republic, $85 for a box of 25.

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“I smoke because it’s a trend,” Bassett admitted. “All my friends are into it. Why is it a trend? It’s just another funny thing to do. It’s like in the movie ‘Caddyshack,’ where all these guys are on the golf course smoking. . . . It’s corny.”

As for the health hazards, he believes moderation is a reasonable approach. “My dad’s a dentist, and he shows me pictures where they had to cut people’s lips off because they chewed tobacco. I think about it, but I don’t go overboard. It’s relaxing to have one once in awhile.”

What’s surprising to some is how many women also find them relaxing. Forget the old images of men sending up smoke signals at the poker game or at the fights or anywhere else once considered male domains. Women have broken into this “boys only” club with fists clutching their cigars.

Jennifer Bade, 21, of Costa Mesa, is typical. She was introduced to cigars by her older sister, Angel, about a year ago and has been smoking regularly since. Bade said she often gets odd looks, but it’s worth it.

“I get stared at like, ‘So, do you think you’re a man now?’ ” she said. “But I also get good responses to it. It’s something new for me and my friends. And as a woman, it’s uninhibiting . . . it throws men off when I pull one out. It’s an attention-grabber.”

Bade isn’t a heavy smoker, she says (maybe three a week of her favorites, Macanudos at $5 to $7 each), and when she does indulge, it’s almost always in a social environment. The Shark Club in Costa Mesa and Roxbury South nightclub in Santa Ana are favorite spots where she’ll meet friends and “drink a shot of tequila slowly with a cigar. It really helps to make your troubles go away.”

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To find the best brands or decide which are right for her, Bade heads to knowledgeable sources. “I like to talk to the guys at the stores. They’re helpful. You learn things, like having to feel a cigar to see if it’s tight. I go with medium-sized cigars. The big ones just look too weird.”

Not to Gretchen King of Long Beach. She buys the chubby ones, like those made by Alfred Dunhill of London. The 24-year-old enjoys the shock value almost as much as the flavor.

“These are the kind my dad and brother like,” she said recently while strolling with her boyfriend, Richard Lawlor, at the Belmont Shore pier. “With these, you feel like you’re going all the way; [they] taste good and feel good in your hand, and some people just freak.”

That’s what Lawlor does, but for a different reason. The 28-year-old, also from Long Beach, hates the stench, an attitude shared by many nonsmokers. “It even gets in her hair. . . . I wish she’d stop,” he said, shrugging.

King shrugged back. “The cheap ones are bad, but the more expensive ones aren’t. Cigarettes bother him too.”

They bother strangers, as well, so, King says, she tries to be careful. She only lights up at friends’ homes after asking if it’s OK and never has one in indoor public places. King said she understands that many people don’t appreciate cigars and are concerned about the effects of side-stream smoke.

“I’m sure some of the looks have come with hostility, not curiosity,” King observed. “There are people who have had bad experiences [with smokers] and see you the same way. There’s really nothing I can do about that.”

While others may not like the smell, business types, from sellers to those who run the smokers, do--it’s the smell of money.

James Goudreault, the humidor manager for the Dunhill outlet in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, said he’s seen interest in cigars rise steadily the past two years. He’s kept busy making sure quality cigars are kept on his shelves and providing them to the local restaurants, clubs and bars that offer smokers.

While some feel the fad will wheeze out, especially among the new wave of cigar-lovers, Goudreault is more sanguine. “Up until three or four years ago, cigar smokers were the 40- to 50-year-old crowd; now it’s people in their 20s and 30s,” he said. “They’re fueling the market, and that’s a good indication that it will continue to grow.”

Some merchants say they are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. Chuck Abarta of Hi-Time Cellars in Costa Mesa said he “spends 3 1/2 days a week calling to try to find stock” for his Smoke Shack, which sells premium cigars and smoking paraphernalia--humidors, cutters and other implements--next to expensive wines.

“We can’t get enough cigars. Some manufacturers are running 18 million cigars behind,” Abarta said. “Considering all of the negativism of tobacco, there has been a phenomenal rise. . . . It’s the big guys’ plaything.”

The revival came at a good time, noted Niki Singer, the senior vice president of Cigar Aficionado magazine, which publishes out of New York City. Cigar sales, she said, had been dropping since the ‘60s, with “cigar stores closing everywhere and manufacturers in terrible shape.”

But that all changed, and Cigar Aficionado has been one of the beneficiaries. Seen as a big gamble when it premiered three years ago, the quarterly glossy (published by Marvin R. Shaken, who also produces Wine Spectator magazine) now has a circulation of about 250,000.

“It used to be difficult to get celebrities to appear [on the magazine cover]. . . we just had pictures of cigars,” Singer said. “But then they started coming to us, and we’ve had Bill Cosby, Jack Nicholson and Linda Evangelista [in the current issue]. Tom Selleck is coming up next.”