Jump to full article: Stamford (CT) Advocate, 2008-07-05
Author: Mark Ginocchio Staff Writer
Intro: "There's smoking restrictions and pressure from those around you who don't want you to smoke," said Mark Rozelle, a spokesman for Stamford-based UST. "I think what's happening is as more people switch to smokeless tobacco, it becomes a socially acceptable alternative to smoking."
In a recent letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Gregory Connolly, director of Harvard University's Tobacco Control Research program, cited a reduction in cigarette sales, but an increase in the use of alternative tobacco products such as snuff, small cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes.
Americans bought 17.4 billion packs of cigarettes in 2007, down from 21.1 billion in 2000, according to the letter. During the same period, sales of snuff, small cigars, and roll-your-own cigarettes increased by an equivalent of 1.1 billion packs. . . .
UST officials and representatives from the cigar lobby, dismiss the idea that smokers are turning to other tobacco products just because the price of cigarettes are rising.
"Price has the least to do with it," Rozelle said.
UST and other smokeless tobacco have used millions of dollars to promote their products to the smoking community, letting them know that there are other alternatives out there to cigarettes, Rozelle said.
UST has invested $100 million annually to these advertising efforts since 2001, Rozelle added. . . .
Owners of small cigar and tobacco shops in lower Fairfield County are unsure if Connolly's numbers are translating to higher sales for them.
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