How does cigar smoking affect a persons risk of lung cancer and other types of cancer?
Cigars became a trend in the 1990s, attracting the young and the old. Perceived as less detrimental to one’s health, cigars actually pose the same, if not greater, risk as cigarettes for oral cancer. Although many cigar smokers do not inhale, their risk for oral, throat, and esophageal cancers is the same as for cigarette smokers. Consider these facts: • Compared with nonsmokers, cigar smokers who inhale are eight times more likely to develop oral cancer, four to 10 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer, and 10 times more likely to develop laryngeal cancer. • Cigar smokers who inhale and smoke five cigars a day run the same lung cancer risk as one-pack-a-day cigarette smokers. • Secondhand smoke from cigars contains toxins and cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) similar to secondhand cigarette smoke, but in higher concentrations.
