GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT CIGAR AND PIPE SMOKING

People who smoke pipes and cigars instead of cigarettes reduce some hazards to their health but increase others.

Most pipe and cigar smokers don't inhale the smoke. Because they don't inhale, particles and noxious gases don't bombard their lungs and seep into their blood stream. As a result, their chance of developing coronary heart disease or severe lung disease, such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and lung cancer are less than those who smoke cigarettes.

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INHALING CIGAR AND PIPE SMOKE

However, when smokers of pipes and cigars do inhale, their chances of developing serious heart and lung disease are even higher than cigarette smokers. There is a special danger for cigarette smokers who switch to pipes and cigars. Some studies show that smokers who switch have established patterns of inhaling. These smokers are more likely to inhale tobacco smoke. In addition, often the ex-cigarette smoker eventually returns to cigarettes.

Even tobacco smoke that is not inhaled has negative effects. Inhaling is not necessary to produce the harmful effects of smoke. Smoke lingers outside the mouth and can travel inside the throat and windpipe and into the upper breathing passages. Because of such exposure, the incidence of cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, and stomach are as high, and in some studies, even higher for cigar and pipe smokers than for cigarette smokers. Pipe smoking alone or together with other forms of smoking seems to be a direct cause of cancer of the lip.

Some experiments with mice indicate there is a higher degree of cancer-causing agents in cigar and pipe tars than in cigarette tars. In general, smokers who limit themselves to just pipes and cigars live longer than cigarette smokers, but they do not live as long as nonsmokers.

There is some evidence that cigarette smokers who cut down on cigarettes and substitute cigars and pipes instead do somewhat decrease their chance of premature death. But at the same time, people who smoke cigars and pipes have higher premature death rates for certain specific cancers of the lip, throat, voice box, and stomach.

Pipe and cigar smoke is more irritating to the eyes, nose, throat, and breathing passages and more offensive to nonsmokers than cigarette smoke.

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WE CAN HELP!

If you are interested in quitting your use of tobacco products, University Health Services provides tobacco cessation consultation on an individual basis for Penn State Students. Call (814) 863-0461 for an appointment.

For additional information about pipe and cigar smoking, contact the American Cancer Society, located at 123 South Sparks Street in State College or call (814) 238-8908.