People appear to choose non-cigarette tobacco products over cigarettes, according to a report released by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers collected governmental data between 2000 and 2007 and found that cigarettes sales declined 18 percent, from 21.1 billion packs to 17.4 billion packs, but at the same time, sales of non-cigarette tobacco products such as moist snuff, your-own tobacco and small cigars increased by the equivalent of 1.10 billion packs of cigarettes (714 million moist snuff, 256 million roll-your-own tobacco, and 130 million small cigars).

The reason behind this situation lies in educational efforts, including media campaigns giving people “a false sense of security with other forms of tobacco,” Dr. Gregory Connolly, D.M.D., M.P.H. of the Harvard School of Public Health, one of the authors of the report said, as quoted by MedPage Today.

Also, non-cigarette tobacco products are cheaper and have less taxes than cigarettes. The researchers found that the weekly cost for a typical user of premium moist snuff is 55 percent less than for a typical cigarettes smoker.

These two factors are “keeping tobacco addiction ‘affordable,’” encouraging preventable disease and death. Therefore, Dr. Connelly said all forms of tobacco should be taxed equally. Also, national campaigns should emphasize the deadly risks people are exposing to when smoking no matter what kind of tobacco products they are choosing.

According to the American Heart Association, about 25.9 million men and 20.7 million women in the United States are smokers. Annually, nearly 450,000 Americans die of smoking-related illnesses.

The report, funded by the American Legacy Foundation, an antismoking advocacy group, appeared in the June 11 issue of the Journal of the America Medical Association. The group was created by and is currently funded by the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.