BY JACOB SEITER

Cigar Smoke vs. Cigarette Smoke, Just as Bad?

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 carcinogensUsed 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 subjects

# of control 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, pure smokers

43 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:0.1-13.013.1-26.026.1-39.0>39.1

451222

21201719

3.14.310.320.7

Avg. consumption of tobacco use, g/day:0.1-3.53.6-5.05.1-10.7>10.8

510523

22251119

3.46.27.821.1

Cumulative consumption of tobacco, g/day x y:1-7152-157158-382>383

34828

19201919

2.43.26.026.9

Age at start of tobacco use, y:<1920-26>27

20167

202334

17.010.53.4

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 smokers

1.058 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/0,2322,1544,00.html

3.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar4.) http://www.cubancrafters.com/picking_tobacco.php