Most people believe that smoking cigars or pipes is safer or less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Researchers performed a study to see if the smoke from pipes and cigars was linked to elevated cotinine levels, decreases in lung function, and increased odds of airflow obsturction. There was 3,528 individuals participating, the pipe and cigar smokers were much more likely to have their airflow be obstructed. The cotinine levels of cigar and pipe smokers are lower than the cigarette smokers (which only may be related to the nicotine absorption not necessarily the exposure to harmful products of tobacco smoke.)
R. Graham Barr (MD, Dr.PH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Presbyterian, and lead author in this study) says "our study shows that pipe and cigar smoking is associated with decrements in lung function that are consistent with obstructive lung disease. These findings, together with increased cotinine levels in current pipe and cigar smokers, suggest long term pipe smokers may damage their lungs and contribute to the development of COPD. " I've always heard that cigars were less harmful than cigarettes so when I found this article I was kind of shocked.
Either way smoking is bad for you. But it is nice to know that cigars and pipes are worse than cigarettes. But at the same time the nicotine and the other chemicals also harm you. Its a very interesting study.
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