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| Effects Of Smoking Cigar |
Question:
Are the effects of smoking a cigar less harmful than smoking cigerattes?
Answer:
Some people think that smoking cigars and pipes is less harmful than smoking
cigarettes. However, research has shown that cigar and pipe smoking are
almost as likely to cause lung cancer as cigarette smoking. Even cigar and
pipe smokers who do not inhale are at increased risk for lung, mouth and
other types of cancers.
Cigar smoke has the same carcinogens as cigarette smoke and can therefore be
a cause of lung, lip, mouth, tongue, throat, esophagus, pancreatic, bladder
and kidney cancers.
Because the cigar is held in the mouth for long periods of time and has a
lot of "juice", it is probably more like chewing tobacco in that the risk of
mouth and throat cancers would be higher.
The smoke released from cigars and cigarettes contain many of the same toxic
agents (carbon monoxide, nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and volatile
aldehydes) and human carcinogens (benzene, vinyl chloride, ethylene oxide,
arsenic, cadmium, nitrosamines, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons).
However, the amounts of these substances present in cigar smoke are
different than in cigarette smoke. For example, compared to a cigarette, a
large cigar emits up to 20 times more ammonia, five to 10 times more cadmium
(a cancer-causing metal) and methylethyl nitro-samine (a cancer-causing
agent), and up to 80 to 90 times as much of the highly carcinogenic
tobacco-specific nitrosamines.
The result is that daily cigar smoking carries significant health risks. Not
only can cigar smoking cause many cancers (oral cancers, including throat
cancer, and cancer of the larynx, esophagus, and lung) but also chronic
obstructive lung disease and coronary heart disease. There is also evidence
which strongly suggests that cigar smoking is associated with cancer of the
pancreas. Many of these cancers - lung, esophageal, and pancreatic - are
associated with extremely low survival rates.
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