Cigar Health Label Called Bum Wrap

A Massachusetts legislator wants to make cigar aficionados face the same health warning labels that will soon confront cigarette smokers in the state, and stogie lovers are aghast.

“Smoking a cigar is not a habit,” said Barry MacDonald, whose father, Paul MacDonald, owns the Ehrlich’s smoke shop on Beacon Hill. “It’s an event, a pastime. I don’t think it should be viewed as an addiction.”

Unlike cigarette makers, who were required in 1984 to print warning labels on their packages, cigar makers have been exempt from federal labeling regulations.

But now state Sen. Warren Tolman has introduced a bill that would require cigar makers to obey the same state law facing other tobacco products in Massachusetts.

That first-in-the-nation law, going into effect July 1, requires disclosure of additives and nicotine levels in cigarettes, snuff and chewing tobacco.