in comparison to cigarettes what health risks are associated

in comparison to cigarettes, what health risks are associated with pipe and cigar smoking?

Solution

Cigars and pipes differ in design from cigarettes, which are made from tobacco wrapped in thin paper. Cigars are wrapped in tobacco leaves, and unlike cigarettes, they don\'t typically have filters. In pipes, the tobacco sits in a bowl at the end, and a stem connects the bowl to the mouthpiece. Pipes can be equipped with filters, however.

It is often said that cigar and pipe smoking are not addictive as cigarettes. Yet research shows that cigar and pipe smoking is every bit as dangerous as cigarette smoking, and possibly even more dangerous.

1. A single large cigar can contain more than a 1/2 ounce of tobacco -- as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes. One cigar also contains 100 to 200 milligrams of nicotine, while a cigarette averages only about 8 milligrams.

2. A smoker can spend more than an hour puffing on a cigar, which has the equivalent risk of oral cancers as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Daily cigarette smokers and daily cigar smokers have similar levels of risk for oral cancers. Smokers who smoke more than five cigars per day have lung cancer risks comparable to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. The real difference between cigar and cigarette smoking is the type of cancers that cigar smokers develop, which is usually a head or neck cancer instead of the lung cancer so common among cigarette smokers. Unfortunately, people who switch from using cigarettes to cigars tend to smoke cigars the way they smoked cigarettes: by inhaling deeply and smoking often. Inhalation seems to raise the health risks of cigars so that the smoker will face the same health risks as with cigarette smoking.

3. Unlike cigarettes, cigars & pipes do not have filters to reduce their tar and nicotine content. Cigar packages do not carry the Surgeon General\'s health warnings that are required on other tobacco products. Like cigarettes, the additives in cigars are not regulated by any consumer or governmental agency and do not have to be reported or put on the label.

4. Because of the long aging and fermentation process for cigar leaves, because of the larger size of cigars and because of the toxic way it burns due to cigars\' nonporous wrappers, cigar smoke has 20 times more ammonia than cigarettes and 80 to 90 times the number of highly carcinogenic, tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Cigar smoke also contains 30 times more carbon monoxide than cigarette smoke.

5. The second-hand smoke from a single cigar burned in a home can take five hours to dissipate. Secondhand cigar smoke contains the same 4,000 chemical compounds found in other tobacco products. Many of these compounds occur in much higher quantities in cigars than in cigarettes. These include unusually high amounts of ammonia, carbon monoxide, nitrosamines and easily inhaled particles -- all potent carcinogens.