Tobacco and college students

NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Praxis Press) Cigarette smoking is on the rise among adolescents and college students, but little is known about use of non-cigarette tobacco products or cigar use in this population. To assess the prevalence of all forms of tobacco use (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco) among US college students, Rigotti and colleagues surveyed a total of 14,138 randomly selected students. The students were asked to give a self-report of current (in the past 30 days), past year and lifetime use of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco, and all tobacco products. Nearly half of respondents had used a tobacco product in the past year and one third currently used tobacco. Cigarettes accounted for most of the tobacco use (28.5% current prevalence), but cigar use was also substantial (37.1% lifetime prevalence, 23.0% past-year prevalence, and 8.5% current prevalence) and combinations of the two were common. College...