Lockdown reignited fashion for smoking cigars and pipes

LOCKDOWNS caused a surge in cigar and pipe smoking, a study has found.

Young adults were the most likely to smoke them after the revival of a trend that may have been inspired by sports stars and musicians.

The number of adults in England using non-cigarette tobacco products increased from 210,000 in February 2020 to a peak of almost one million adults in May 2022.

The 350 per cent rise in adults using cigars, cigarillos, pipes and shisha over the past decade is a public health concern, say cancer experts, and separate to the rise in e-cigarettes and vaping.

In September 2013, just 0.36 per cent of adults, or 151,000 people, used the products, rising to 0.46 per cent by February 2020.

Over the following two years, this surged to a peak of 1.97 per cent in May 2022, when around 910,000 adults were smoking cigars or other non-cigarette tobacco products. The number has fallen to 1.68 per cent since, according to the latest figures in September 2023, accounting for around 773,000 people.

But scientists are most concerned by the rise in use among young adults, with 3.2 per cent of 18-year-olds smoking the products in September 2023, up from just 0.19 per cent a decade earlier. Where the proportion of people using cigars and other products had risen with age in 2013, the trend had completely reversed in 2023, with 65-yearolds the least likely to partake in non-cigarette smoking.

University College London also noted that the rise in use coincided with a ban on menthol cigarettes, which was not extended to other tobacco products.

Cancer Research UK said this proved it was vital that the ban on smoking for anyone born in 2009 or later set to be introduced by the Government did not have similar loopholes available.

Dr Ian Walker, the charity’s executive director of policy, said: “Tobacco kills one person every five minutes in the UK. Research like this shows that the issue of smoking isn’t just about cigarettes – all tobacco products are harmful and cause cancer, no matter what form they’re in. That’s why it’s crucial that the Government’s age of sale legislation applies to all tobacco products.”

The study was published in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research journal.