A Cloud Over Cigar Smoking

Those who smoke cigars are not typical smokers. They don’t puff a pack a day. Most hit the humidor just once in a while, when they’re in the mood--often kicking back and taking long, slow draws. To many, it’s very retro and very cool.

But a bill now working its way through the state Legislature would add a reality check to those fancy cigar boxes: Warning labels similar to those on cigarette packets stating the health risks associated with smoking.

The proposal has the strong support of local health officials, who say many cigar smokers aren’t aware of the dangers that come with lighting up that stogie. Like cigarettes, cigars contain nicotine and have been linked to cancer and heart disease.

“Hopefully, people will realize smoking cigars is not glamorous,” said Marilyn Pritchard, director of the tobacco use prevention program for the Orange County Health Care Agency. “It’s deadly.”

Some owners of local cigar shops and lounges, however, expressed concern over the bill, saying the warnings are unneeded and only add another layer of government regulation.

“I don’t think it would be that big of a difference,” said George Bacol, owner of Cohiba Cigar Lounge in Long Beach. “I’m sure everybody knows they’re bad for you, and they’re not stopping.”

While the “rebirth” in cigar smoking has gained national media attention in recent years, a 1998 study by the Orange County Health Care Agency found that less than 1% of adults smokes a cigar daily.

The percentage of daily cigar users in California decreased from 9% in 1990 to 4.5% in 1996, according to a recent state Department of Health Services survey.

Still, health officials said they are alarmed that cigar smoking has become fashionable, especially with young people who believe it’s safer than smoking cigarettes.

Not true, said David M. Burns, professor of medicine at UC San Diego and the senior scientific editor for the National Cancer Institute.

From a health standpoint, smoking a single cigar is similar to smoking a pack of cigarettes, and a cigar can contain as much as 70 times the amount of nicotine as a cigarette, he said.

“They seem to believe that somehow this is safe, but it’s not,” Burns said. “There is no difference in toxicity between cigarettes and cigars. The difference is the frequency to which you use them.”

State Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), who drafted the bill, said cigars need health warnings because many smokers don’t recognize the risks.

“For some reason cigarettes are vilified and cigars are exalted,” she said. “We believe that patrons should be informed of the dangers before they light up.”

Some cigar packages have warning labels of one form or another now. But the bill would require each manufacturer or importer of cigars to place one of three specified warning labels on each package distributed in California. The label specifies that cigars contain cancer-causing chemicals and that smoking causes cancer and other diseases. Manufacturers who did not comply would be subject to penalties, including a fine of up to $2,500 per day.

Some cigar store owners don’t like the proposed rules. Carrie Aley, who owns Romeo et Juliette in Newport Beach, said warning labels are unnecessary and are as ridiculous as adding a label to gas pumps, cars and, well, butter.

“Why don’t they put a label on butter that says it causes heart disease?” she said. “Let’s label everything.”

Aley also said the bill is ill-timed. “The fad is over,” she said. “There is no media push on cigars right now.”

Pritchard disagrees. “I think there is a perpetuation with magazines and with advertising within the media to portray the glamorization of cigar use, especially in Orange County.”