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Tobacco use common among college students Nearly half of college students surveyed report using tobacco products within the past year, according to a recent article in the American Medical Association (JAMA), a theme issue on tobacco. Nancy A. Rigotti, M.D., director of Tobacco Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues examined data from surveys submitted by randomly selected students from 119 four-year colleges in the United States in 1999.  The data were from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Survey, which was designed to assess alcohol and other substance use-including tobacco use. The survey also includes questions about demographic and background characteristics, satisfaction with education and students’ interests and lifestyle choices. Of the students randomly selected, 60 percent (14,138 students) responded. Rigotti presented the study at a JAMA media briefing on tobacco during the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health. More than half (61.0 percent) of those who responded to the survey have tried a tobacco product, nearly half (45.7) percent reported using tobacco products in the past year and one-third (32.9) percent reported using tobacco products within the past 30 days. Concerning cigarette use, 38.1 percent reported smoking in the past year and 28.5 percent reported smoking within the past 30 days. Among the students who reported being current smokers (having smoked within the past 30 days), 32.0 percent reported smoking less than one cigarette per day, 43.6 percent reported smoking one to ten cigarettes per day and 12.8 percent reported smoking one or more packs of cigarettes per day. After cigarettes, cigars were the most commonly used tobacco products by the survey respondents. More than one third (37.1 percent) reported having ever smoked a cigar, 23.0 percent reported smoking a cigar within the past year and 8.5 percent reported smoking a cigar within the past 30 days.  According to the authors, this is the first national study to report on cigar use among college students. The high rate of cigar smoking by college students is consistent with other data that show a 50 percent increase in cigar consumption in the United States between 1993 and 1998, following a 30-year decline.  The authors note that until the 1990s, cigar use was rare in young adults and women, but this is no longer the case.