The Hidden Dangers of Cigars

[CigarAl]

Hidden Danger of Cigars.....

The Hidden Dangers of Cigars
Smoking cigars, a risky habit, still has a cool image on film.
by Dr. Ranit Mishori, PARADE More on this in Health & Fitness


We all know that cigarettes have an image problem these days. You don’t see them very much in films anymore—even the villains seem to have kicked the habit. But when it comes to cigars, that’s not the case. Many people still think cigars are cool. The notion is helped by pictures of elegant men in tuxedos and a few famous women puffing away at their cigars—think of those much-circulated photos of Demi Moore and Madonna. Cigars even show up in films made for younger moviegoers. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, and Wolverine all feature cigar-smoking.

Indeed, the American Cancer Society notes that cigars are especially popular today among adolescents and young adults. That includes all manner of cigars: hand- and machine-rolled, stogies and cigarillos.

Cigar smokers may think they’re taking less of a risk than cigarette smokers. That’s wrong, mostly. While it’s true that most cigar smokers do not inhale all the way, smoking cigars is linked to cancers that develop along the route the smoke travels—from the lips to the tongue and through the mouth and throat to the lungs.

Beyond that, smoking cigars has been shown to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, heart disease, and lung disease.

Secondhand cigar smoke poses another danger—even more so than with cigarettes. As the National Cancer Institute points out, cigars contain greater amounts of tobacco simply as a result of their bigger size. It also takes longer to puff your way through a cigar, meaning that the exposure time to toxic chemicals lasts longer.

Finally, because of the way cigars are wrapped, the smoke has higher concentrations of toxins and irritants than cigarettes. A Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology study found higher levels of the toxin carbon monoxide at two cigar social events in San Francisco than on a busy California freeway.

As for nicotine—the chemical that gets you hooked on smoking—cigars contain greater concentrations of it than cigarettes. For a large cigar, it can be up to 200 milligrams. That’s 23 times the amount of nicotine in a typical cigarette. The difference is that cigar smokers—most of whom don’t inhale smoke into their lungs—absorb the smoke through the lining of the mouth.

About a third of new teenage smokers start after being exposed to smoking in movies. Talk to your kids. Remind them that smoking cigars isn’t cool.

Courtesy of PARADE

I would love too see where this doctors research and facts came from.....

This was on the MSN home page.

How your roll a cigar increases the toxin and irritants? Could some explain that to me? I mean the leaves have a certian amount of nicotine.....If I roll it a certian way I can excrete more????

Perfect reasons why cigar smoking gets a bad rap.....

These people need to be stopped!

Al

 

[grateful1]

Old news Al...but it's good to see you posting!

 

[dulaney22]

Old news Al...but it's good to see you posting!

I wonder where they factor in if I don't smoke one in the afternoon I might kill one of my 4 children when I get home?

 

[CigarAl]

Old news Al...but it's good to see you posting!

Thanks Gary...hope all is well with too!

I agree old news...but the "fact" about how cigars are rolled can be more dangerous was a new twist for me............and there was just a large article in Cigar Magazine about cigars in the movies.......

 

[Greggj77]

"A Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology study found higher levels of the toxin carbon monoxide at two cigar social events in San Francisco than on a busy California freeway. "

Should we abstain from driving too? Where exactly are they going with this, you would think if the author was trying to articulate a point, he would have chosen a better example.

Just more media drivel for the masses to absorb.

 

[bigwhiteash]

The media could print that tobacco smoke is causing sunspots and an orbital degradation of Saturn, and the masses would believe it.. It's gotten way past the snowball effect level.

If you smoke.. you're killing people.

Nothing we say is going to change that now

 

[tmoney2007]

Hidden Danger of Cigars.....

The Hidden Dangers of Cigars
Smoking cigars, a risky habit, still has a cool image on film.
by Dr. Ranit Mishori, PARADE More on this in Health & Fitness


We all know that cigarettes have an image problem these days. You don’t see them very much in films anymore—even the villains seem to have kicked the habit. But when it comes to cigars, that’s not the case. Many people still think cigars are cool (because they are). The notion is helped by pictures of elegant men in tuxedos and a few famous women puffing away at their cigars—think of those much-circulated photos of Demi Moore (I guess that makes sense) and Madonna (not so much). Cigars even show up in films made for younger moviegoers. Iron Man (not really for young people), The Dark Knight (definitely not for young people), Quantum of Solace (not even marketed to young people), and Wolverine (piece of crap movie that no one cares about) all feature cigar-smoking guys chewing on/lighting cigars and then throwing them away before they get an inch into them.

Indeed, the American Cancer Society notes that cigars are especially popular today among adolescents and young adults. That includes all manner of cigars: hand- and machine-rolled, stogies, cigarillos and other words that I am told are types of cigars.

Cigar smokers may think they’re taking less of a risk than cigarette smokers. That’s wrong, mostly, which makes the point of this article wrong, partly. While it’s true that most cigar smokers do not inhale all the way, smoking cigars is linked to cancers that develop along the route the smoke travels—from the lips to the tongue and through the mouth and throat to the lungs. I say "lungs", even though they have nothing to do with the path of most cigar smokers puffs, because people are scared of lung cancer.

Beyond that, smoking cigars has been correlated to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. While there is no causal link, this sentence supports my argument.

Secondhand cigar smoke poses another danger—even more so than with cigarettes. As the National Cancer Institute points out, cigars contain greater amounts of tobacco (3/4" x 5" Cigars contain more tobacco than 1/4" x 2.5" cigarrettes??? You're breaking some new ground there) simply as a result of their bigger size. It also takes longer to puff your way through a cigar, meaning that the exposure time to toxic chemicals lasts longer, but only the naturally occurring toxic chemicals in tobacco, not the hundreds of toxic chemicals added to the "tobacco" that is in cigarettes.

Finally, because of the way cigars are wrapped (cigarettes aren't wrapped?), the smoke has higher concentrations of toxins and irritants than cigarettes. A Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology study found higher levels of the toxin carbon monoxide at two cigar social events in San Francisco than on a busy California freeway (No shit sherlock, THINGS ARE BURNING! and social events are usually in enclosed spaces).

As for nicotine—the chemical that gets you hooked on smoking—cigars contain greater concentrations of it than cigarettes (Once again, more tobacco, more nicotine, no big news here). For a large cigar, it can be up to 200 milligrams. That’s 23 times the amount of nicotine in a typical cigarette. The difference is that cigar smokers—most of whom don’t inhale smoke into their lungs—absorb the smoke through the lining of the mouth, which has nothing to do with how dangerous nicotine is.

About a third of new teenage smokers start after being exposed to smoking in movies. Talk to your kids. Remind them that smoking cigars is a choice that should be left up to an individual once they have all the facts about the consequences of the action.

Courtesy of PARADE

FIFY :laugh:

 

[stevehawk]

How your roll a cigar increases the toxin and irritants? Could some explain that to me? I mean the leaves have a certian amount of nicotine.....If I roll it a certian way I can excrete more????

I think he may be referring to the fact that cigars are rolled with tobacco as a wrappper where cigs are rolled with a paper wrapper. The drying process does infuse cigars with more nicotine than cigarretes. Cigars are air dried and go through a fermentation process while cigarette tobacco is heat dried. As for one cigar containing 23 times the amount of nicotine, I think the wrapper, the drying method and the relevant size of the cigar all play a part.

As for cigars being "as dangerous" to one's health as cigarettes, that been proven false through various medical studies over the past few decades -- with one caveat: as long as you don't inhale. Inhalation of smoke is the number one contributor of health problems for smokers (regardless of what you smoke.) If you don't inhale, and smoke less than 5 cigars per day on average, you have a much lower risk of health problems than does your average smoker.

There's a great study that was done by Kaiser Permanente that compared the health risks of cigar smokers versus cigarette smokers. I can't remember the exact numbers but it followed several thousand smokers (15,000 is what I recall) over numerous years (around 20, I think) and studied the health implications of cigars versus cigarettes. Overall, the study found that cigar smokers were twice as likely to develop certain cancers as non-smokers, while cigarette smokers were up to 17 times as likely to have health issues and cancers than non-smokers. That's a comparison you never see in articles liek the one above, but is key in my mind. Again, though, it relies on cigar smokers not inhaling and smoking less than 5 per day.

Another difference that is never discussed by the media are the health benefits (primarily mental) of cigar smoking. THe American Cancer Society website had stated in the past that 90 percent of cigarette smokers they've surveyed want to quit smoking. Those smokers see no health benefits to cigarettes. As a comparison, cigar smokers typically do not express a desire to quit smoking cigars and often cite health benefits (through relaxation and interpersonal bonding) of smoking cigars. I surveyed approx. 30 member of CP a few months ago and their responses bear this out. In addition to enjoying smoking, about 60% cited some type of health benefit from smoking cigars. Other key items the survey revealed were: 1) the average age when the respondents began smoking was around 31 years and 2) almost 95% of the smokers were married or in serious relationships. Those facts tend to point toward a maturity in cigar smokers that you may not see in cogarette smokers, who typically begin smoking in their teens.

Bottom line is that cigar smoking does not pose as great a risk to a person's health as smoking cigarettes as long as you don't inhale. Also, cigar smokers tend to begin smoking later in life which lends credence to the argument that they ahve made a personal choice to smoke cigars as opposed to being influenced by peer pressure as a teenager.

Sorry for the lengthy diatribe... but I hope this helps. I'd recommend Googling the medical study from Kaiser Permanente if you want more info on the health comparisons mentioned above. There are also great resources for learning about the differences between the tobacco and manufacturing differences between cigars and cigarettes. It's important to be informed so we can get the word out when confronted by articles like the one above.

Sorry for the typos...
S.

 

[verhoevc]

My personal favorite part in the above article is that he says cigars have higher CONCENTRATIONS of nicotine, and then back this observation up with an absolute figure lol. What a tard... whether true or not, who tries to validate concentrations (a parts-per-million or %) with an absolute number!? Some doctor he must be if he can't even properly present evidence.
Chris

 

[DirtyDave]

A little talked about fact about nicotine is that it does not meet the criteria for addiction. All those years when big tobacco said that nicotine isn't addictive, they weren't lying. There are physical criteria for something to be considered addictive, and nicotine falls short. It does however act like an addiction (gotta love neuroscience). It has to do with the capping of your receptors in the brain. An addiction causes a cap on the inside, this is where tolerance comes from. The more capped receptors, the more you have to provide to find an open one. Nicotine sticks to the outside, acting like a cap, but since a cap never forms inside the neuron, it isn't an addictive substance.

Man that felt good, I haven't used that in a while. I guess I did learn something in college.

 

[TheVitaleMob]

The media could print that tobacco smoke is causing sunspots and an orbital degradation of Saturn, and the masses would believe it.. It's gotten way past the snowball effect level.

If you smoke.. you're killing people.

Nothing we say is going to change that now

Actually, with SCHIP, we're raising kiddies from the dead! Ok, not really, but yeah.

 

[Not A Nice Person]

There's a great study that was done by Kaiser Permanente that compared the health risks of cigar smokers versus cigarette smokers . . . Overall, the study found that cigar smokers were twice as likely to develop certain cancers as non-smokers, while cigarette smokers were up to 17 times as likely to have health issues and cancers than non-smokers.

This is the bit that always gets me. What is twice of zilch?

It may have been this study, or a similar one, that I read online a few years back . . . one of those "certain cancers" was some kind of oral or esophageal cancer. Okay, fine. TWICE as likely as someone who doesn't smoke at all to develop esophageal cancer? Exactly HOW likely is that likely to be?

Someday hedonism and the recognition that some things are adult choices WILL make a comeback. I just hope it's actually in my own lifetime! :sign:

~Boar

 

[in2xshp]

Toxic chemicals? Are Torcedors spraying the cigars with Agent Orange when they roll them now?

 

[Dios de Fuego]

In comparison of cigarettes to cigars, if it takes ten cigarettes to equal the nicotine of one cigar. Then to say that cigar smokers are at the same or a heightened risk of cigarette smokers one would have to assume that the average cigarette smoker only smokes 10 cigarettes a day. Not so, as far as I have noticed.

As far as heightened carbon monoxide levels in California, can one accurately measure this in California. No offense to anyone that lives there. :thumbs:

 

[LibertyToad]

The minute you see "second hand smoke" accepted as a proven fact you should instantly become pretty wary of the "study". The "study" is also blatantly one-sided which doesn't help it appear to be accurate.

 

[Dios de Fuego]

The minute you see "second hand smoke" accepted as a proven fact you should instantly become pretty wary of the "study". The "study" is also blatantly one-sided which doesn't help it appear to be accurate.

I would also like to see a death certificate, where the cause of death is second hand smoke. But you never will because they don't exist.

 

[lordlister]

"A Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology study found higher levels of the toxin carbon monoxide at two cigar social events in San Francisco than on a busy California freeway. "

Should we abstain from driving too? Where exactly are they going with this, you would think if the author was trying to articulate a point, he would have chosen a better example.

Just more media drivel for the masses to absorb.

I also found that passage to be particularly stupid. They should have also mentioned that insertion of most types of cigars directly into the trachea proves deadly within minutes. :thumbs:

 

[Rusty-Shackleford]

I too saw this article but could not bring myself to read it all... I remember a report from the NCI that stated somewhere in its 232 pages that 1-2 cigars per day did NOT raise mortality rate. it was 1.02 compared to 1.0, though it is not statistically significant past an alpha value of .05. The only increased chance was double for oral cancers and larynx cancer is six time more likely. I am not sure on the natural occurrence. It is a very interesting read as it is by a biased source (what study isn't on topics like this) and basically says cigars are not harmful. It was called :cigars: health effects and trends" if anyone is interested in reading it. The study does recognize that you do not inhale. Lung cancer is actually 0.99 compared to 1.00 for the general population ironically.

 

[verhoevc]

Stogieguy's blog did a commentary on that very article awhile back.
Another thing that struck me as odd in this article is that they compare nicotine levels in the two... but do not make ANY attempt at comparing absorption rates and percentages... because although I'm not a doctor, I seriously doubt your mouth absorbs nicotine as effectively as say.... THE CAPILLARIES IN YOUR LUNGS!
Chris

 

[TheVitaleMob]

Also notice the environment where they conducted the testing. A cigar gathering of some sort. A room saturated with cigar smoke, not a single person in a lab measurement setting.

OF COURSE IT'S BOGUS!! No one works for free. We live in an age where someone pays for a study, and pays for the study to support their own agenda. It's not new, it's not changing.

If only we lived in a world where personal character mattered, and gullible people were shot on sight.