Cigars Pose Health Risks, Too

Cigar sales have soared in recent years as cigar smoking has become more socially acceptable. A blitz of cigar advertising in magazines and prominent cigar placement in movies and music videos has made cigar smoking fashionable, even glamorous. Men who smoke cigars may believe that they are less harmful to their health than cigarettes, but this idea is false. Cigar smoking has been linked to the development of cancer of the mouth, larynx (voice box), esophagus (the muscular passage that connects the mouth and the stomach), and lungs. Men who smoke cigars regularly, especially those who smoke several cigars a day, raise their risk of heart disease and lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema . Drinking three or more alcoholic drinks a day combined with cigar smoking seems to raise the risk of cancers of the mouth, larynx, and throat exponentially. The harmful effects of secondhand smoke from a cigarette also apply to smoke given off by cigars.

While very occasional cigar smoking--for example, one cigar per month-- may pose only a minimal health risk, a growing number of men smoke cigars on a far more regular basis, some even daily. Cigars are not an acceptable alternative to cigarettes when it comes to your health or the health of nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke from your cigar. It is best for your health to abstain from cigar smoking altogether.