Departments
Health Matters
|
Week of 24 April 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 29 |
Health Matters
Cigar smoking: a popular habit with serious health risks
I have joined the recent cigar-smoking craze, enjoying one or two a week. Is this a dangerous habit?
One of the fastest growing fads in the country, cigar smoking has become so popular that it has spawned a myriad of new industries and products, including magazines, smoke shops, and cigar-smoking parlors. According to tobacco industry statistics, more than 10 million Americans, mostly male, smoke cigars, an increase of nearly 2 million since 1993. Cigars have long served as a prop in Hollywood, and today's fascination with them has led to more and more stars lighting up on screen.
While cigar smoking may be considered a pleasant pastime by many people, there are serious health risks associated with it, says Gregory Grillone, M.D., an otolaryngologist at Boston Medical Center and assistant professor at the School of Medicine. Among these, he says, is an increased risk of cancer of the lip, oral cavity, and throat.
In addition, the American Lung Association says that cigar smoking can lead to cancer of the larynx and esophagus, contribute to higher death rates among male cigar smokers as opposed to male nonsmokers, increase the risk for development of chronic obstructive lung disease, damage the heart and blood vessels, and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Grillone says there is more tobacco, by volume, in one cigar than there is in an entire pack of cigarettes. Thus, he says, the contention by cigar smokers that they do not inhale and therefore are in less danger than cigarette smokers is erroneous. "While it's true that cigar smokers probably suffer less lung cancer because they do not inhale the smoke," he says, "the incidence of other cancers starting at the front of the oral cavity and moving back is greater." Also, the second-hand smoke created by cigars is more harmful than that of cigarettes. So cigar smokers, who tend to light up in groups, receive a significant dose of harmful carcinogens (poisons that cause cancer) from their compatriots' smoke.
Carcinogens from cigars are absorbed differently by the body from carcinogens from cigarette smoke because cigar smokers' lips and tongues come in direct contact with the leafy tobacco wrapper of the cigar. Carcinogens mix with saliva and are absorbed throughout the mouth and throat, areas in which many cigar smokers tend to develop cancer. In this regard, Grillone says, cigar smoking is akin to chewing tobacco.
While other factors, including genetic predisposition, play a role in whether a person develops head and neck cancers, Grillone says, smoking is a large step toward developing cancer.
His advice: if you don't know if you have a predisposition to cancer, it is safest to avoid engaging in activities that may further increase your risk. In short, if you don't smoke cigars now, don't start. If you do, quit.
"Health Matters" is written in cooperation with staff members of Boston Medical Center. For more information about the dangers of cigar smoking or other health matters, call 617-638-6767.