Cigarette sales in the U.S. fell 18 percent between 2000 and 2007, but sales of non-cigarette tobacco products increased during the same period, offsetting about 30 percent of the decline in cigarette purchases, HealthDay News reported June 10.

Tobacco companies sold about 3.7 billion fewer packs of cigarettes during the study period but 714 million more packages of moist snuff, the equivalent of 256 million cigarettes' worth of roll-your-own tobacco, and 130 million more small cigars, according to research from the Harvard School of Public Health.

"Cigarette companies are responding to the changing pattern of consumption by entering other tobacco markets, including acquisition of major U.S. moist snuff manufacturer Conwood by R.J. Reynolds, and by marketing new snuff and snus products to attract new smokers and new tobacco users," the researchers wrote. "Cigars, roll-your-own and smokeless tobacco products are generally priced lower than cigarettes. The weekly cost for a typical user of a premium moist-snuff brand is 55 percent less than for a typical cigarette smoker.

"State and federal cigarette taxation polices appear to have been effective in reducing smoking, but small cigars and roll-your-own tobacco are taxed at 5 percent to 10 percent the rate of cigarettes, resulting in prices much less than an equivalent pack of cigarettes," the authors noted. "These findings should be considered in future policy decisions meant to curb smoking."

The study was published in the June 11, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.