Transcript Cigar Smoke vs. Cigarette Smoke

Cigar Smoke vs. Cigarette
Smoke, Just as Bad?
BY JACOB SEITER
Cigars
 Mostly grown in Central and South America (warm
and humid climates):

Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Brazil, but
also Connecticut, Switzerland, and the Philippines
 Come from tobacco plants
that can grow up to 6ft.
(Just over 15 leaves/plant)
 Takes an avg. of 5 yrs to make
a cigar- touches 300-500
pairs of hands
Growing
 Planted to produce
seedlings: 2 months
 Dug up and replanted in
fields in order to mature:
another 2 months

Wrapper plants are
covered and individually
tied
 Leaves picked 2-3 at a
time-from bottom up
 Cured (Dried) in barns
for 40-60 days
Fermenting and Ageing
 Fermented in large piles
(high pressure and heat)



Develops flavor and
aroma, remove ammonia,
sap, tar, and nicotine
Restack, respray
Can take a few months to
a few years (multiple
rounds)
 Then aged in large bales
 At least 2 yrs, often more,
to further dry and develop
flavors
Rolling
 Filler leaves are rolled by
hand with lower quality
wrapper leaves called the
binder leaf
 Then further rolled with
the wrapper leaf by
highly trained worker
(10yrs or more)
 Capped with a small
piece of a leaf and gum
arabic (acacia tree sap)
Finished Product
 Kept in cedar boxes at 70˚F and 70% humidity to
keep tobacco from cracking
Is Cigar and Cigarette Smoke Different?
 Cigar smoke is more detrimental to your health:
 Has no filter
 Much larger size and much stronger tobacco
 Cigar smoke is not as bad for your health:
 Rarely inhaled because it’s so strong and people want flavor
from the cigar - more likely to develop oral or esophageal
cancer which is much less prevalent than lung cancer among
all smokers
Research
 Experiment done in Europe to compare risks of lung
cancer in cigar smokers and cigarette smokers
 Study included 5500 male subjects that had some
form of lung cancer and 7100 male subjects than did
not have lung cancer as the control
 Info on subjects was collected from hospitals in
Germany, Italy, and Sweden:

What they smoked, age when started smoking, how much they
smoke, occupational exposure to other carcinogens
 Used odds ratios to make comparisons between case
and control subjects
Odds Ratios of Lung Cancer for Various
Categories of Tobacco Use:
Category of
Tobacco used
# of case # of control
subjects subjects
Odds ratio
Nonsmokers
117
1750
1.0
Cigars, pure smokers
16
42
5.6
Cigarillos, pure
smokers
21
31
12.7
Cigars and Cigarillos, 43
pure smokers
77
9.0
Cigarettes, pure
smokers
4204
3930
14.9
Mixed smokers
1182
1309
12.7
Odds Ratio of Lung Cancer for Cigar and
Cigarillo Smoking
# case subjects
# control subjects
Odds Ratio
NonSmokers
117
1750
1.0
Duration of Tobacco Use, y:
0.1-13.0
13.1-26.0
26.1-39.0
>39.1
4
5
12
22
21
20
17
19
3.1
4.3
10.3
20.7
Avg. consumption of tobacco use, g/day:
0.1-3.5
3.6-5.0
5.1-10.7
>10.8
5
10
5
23
22
25
11
19
3.4
6.2
7.8
21.1
Cumulative consumption of tobacco,
g/day x y:
1-71
52-157
158-382
>383
3
4
8
28
19
20
19
19
2.4
3.2
6.0
26.9
Age at start of tobacco use, y:
<19
20-26
>27
20
16
7
20
23
34
17.0
10.5
3.4
Analysis of Odds Ratios for Cigarette, Cigar, and
Cigarillo Smoking
Category of
Tobacco Use
Duration of
Smoking
(Increase in risk
for 1 yr)
Avg.
Consumption
(Increase in risk
for 1g/day)
Cumulative
Consumption
(Increase in risk
for 1g/day x yrs)
Pure cigarette
smokers
1.084
1.051
1.040
Pure cigar/cigarillo 1.058
smokers
1.057
1.061
Conclusion:
 This study says that cigar smoke probably has a
carcinogenic effect on lungs that is comparable to
that of cigarette smoke
 Even though the OR for cigar smokers is lower than
that of cigarettes in the first table, it is most likely
due to:


Cigar smokers tend to smoke less b/c they are so strong, and
expensive
Cigar smokers tend to start later in life
 Overall cigar smokers have less exposure to tobacco
smoke
Conclusion
 But many other similar experiments have been done:
 Some say the same thing
 Some still say cigars are less harmful
 Some still say cigars are more harmful
 But done in different areas of the world and use
different definitions of parameters
 Hard to come to final conclusion b/c so few cigar
smokers only and really hard to get accurate data on
something that takes +20 yrs to determine the
effects
References
1.) Boffeta, P., Pershagen, G., Joeckel, K., Foraastiere, F., Gaborieau, V., Heinrich,
J., Jahn, I., Kreuzer, M., Merletti, F., Nyberg, F., Rosch, F., Simonato, L. “Cigar
Smoking Lung Cancer: A Multi-center Study From Europe,” J. of the Nat.
Cancer Inst. 91, 697-701. 1999
2.)http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2
322,1544,00.html
3.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar
4.) http://www.cubancrafters.com/picking_tobacco.php