Although cigarette consumption by Americans fell 2.5 percent since 2010, the CDC said declines have been offset by an increase in sales of pipe tobacco and cigarette-like cigars.

From 2000 to 2011, consumption of pipe tobacco rose 482 percent and large cigars rose 233 percent, a new report released August 2 by the Centers for Disease Control stated, offsetting any drop in cigarette smoking in the U.S.

The CDC also noted the tobacco industry has been skirting tax laws by adding extra tobacco to small cigars so they may be classified as large cigars.

"The rise in cigar smoking, which other studies show is a growing problem among youth and young adults, is cause for alarm," Tim McAfee, director of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said in a press release.

"The Surgeon General's Report released this past March shows that getting young people to either quit smoking or never start smoking is the key to ending the tobacco epidemic, because 99 percent of all smokers start before they're 26 years old."

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States.

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