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“They’re cute, they’re colourful, they’re elegant…”
Kelsey Doucette, Students Working in Tobacco Can Help (SWITCH) member, PEI

Over 81 million units of novelty tobacco products were sold in 2007. They have enticing and suggestive names (“Bravo”, “Honey Time”, “Twinkle” and “Kwiki”) with such flavours as peach, watermelon and cotton candy. They are sold in colourful and alluring packaging as singles in plastic tubes, or in small packs, and can cost less than a loonie. They do not require warning labels. Surveys show that teens are five times more likely to smoke cigarillos than adults. Is it not high time to amend the Tobacco Act to protect our youth from semantics and deadly products?

Additional Information from the Tobacco Control Reference Catalogue

Backgrounder: cigarillo smoking in Canada
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
Ottawa: Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, July 2008. [Report]
Table of contents : What is a cigarillo? - What laws govern cigarettes? - What laws govern cigars, cheroots and cigarillos? - What are Canada's international obligations with respect to cigars and cigarillos? - Who smokes cigars and cigarillos? - Why might youth be smoking cigarillos? - What measures are called for?

Cigarillo smoking in Canada: a review of results from CTUMS, Wave 1 - 2007
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
Ottawa: Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, February 2008. [Report]
Presents data on cigarillo use from the 2007 Canadian Tobacco use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS). Key findings include: cigarillos are a youth phenomenon, 5% of Canadian teenagers are smoking cigarillos, and young people have three times the rates of cigarillo use as adults.

Cigarillo smoking in Québec: a review of results from CTUMS, Wave 1 - 2007
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
Ottawa: Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, February 2008. [Report]
Presents data on cigarillo use in Quebec, from the 2007 Canadian Tobacco use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS). Key findings include: total smoking prevalence is 22%; experimentation and cigarillo use is highest among young Quebecers.

Cigarillos
Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco.
Toronto: Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, May 2008. [Report]
Use of cigarillos or little cigars among Canadian youth has become a recent growing trend. Cigarillos are available in appealing flavours such as chocolate, peach, piña colada, vanilla, cherry and can be easily purchased as singles in plastic tubes or in packs of 4-8.