From Medical Correspondent Dr. Steve Salvatore

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls teammates won their sixth NBA championship, they celebrated with cigars. But that image of cigars mixed with success has doctors worried.

The American Medical Association, meeting in Chicago when the Bulls won the championship, approved a policy urging professional athletes not to smoke cigars after a victory.

"This is a teachable moment," said Dr. Ronald M. Davis, chairman of the AMA's Council on Scientific Affairs.

CNN's Dr. Steve Salvatore reports

The doctors are concerned that smoking cigars is putting a growing number of Americans at risk for cancer and heart disease.

Since 1993, cigar use has increased in the United States by nearly 50 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute. Consumption of large cigars is up by 70 percent, and the use of premium cigars -- made mostly by hand and imported -- is up a whopping 250 percent, according to the institute.

"We think that the public needs to know that cigar smoking can cause cancer, it does have health risks associated with it," said Dr. Frank Baker of the American Cancer Society.

Many believe that cigar smoking is not as dangerous as cigarette smoking because cigar smokers typically don't inhale. But there is mounting evidence that daily cigar smoking causes a variety of cancers, including cancer of the mouth, lips, tongue, throat, esophagus, larynx and lung, and possibly cancer of the pancreas.

Health officials are also concerned that young adult males and teen-agers are smoking cigars more.

"As many as 30 percent of kids in high school smoke cigars," Baker said.

Cigars are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. There are no federal restrictions on cigar advertising and no federal regulations requiring health warnings on cigar labels.

But doctors hope that the public is getting the message that cigars may be dangerous to your health.