Cigar Cancer Risks

Find out about the risks of several types of cancer you can get from smoking cigars.

To start with, Cancer is a widespread disease that, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), currently causes approximately one in every four deaths that happen in America. Medical studies show that smoking cigarettes and cigars is the leading cause of this disease. This is due to the fact that cigar smoke contains toxins and carcinogens that are known to cause Cancer. These toxins include carbon monoxide, nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, benzene, arsenic, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and several more. Therefore, if you are a cigar smoker, you increase your risk of getting cancer every time you light up one of those rolled tobacco cylinders. Obviously, the more cigars you smoke, the higher the risk. But, even if you are considered to be a light smoker, only smoking one single cigar a day, you're increasing your chances of getting Cancer. Studies estimate that if you smoke three or four cigars a day, that your risks of getting Cancer are increased to almost ten times as compared to a person who doesn't smoke at all. If you smoke morethan five of these tobacco rolled cylinders a day, you are considered to be a heavy smoker, and your risks run closer to almost twenty times that of a nonsmoker.

There are many different types of the Cancer disease. Cigarette smokers are more likely to suffer from a form of lung Cancer. Because they are stronger in taste, cigar smokers usually don't inhale the smoke from their cigars like cigarette smokers do. There's good news in that fact: this means that cigar smokers are generally at a lower risk of getting lung Cancer.

However, on the flip side of the coin, there is also bad news. If you do smoke cigars and you inhale the smoke, the toxins and carcinogens in the smoke can cause lung and heart disease.

Smoking cigars also poses other Cancer risks. Since a cigar is often held in the mouth for long periods of time, the contact, along with the toxins in the smoke, can cause lip, tongue, and mouth.Cigar smokers also are at a higher risk of getting Cancer of the throat, larynx, and the pharynx.

Unfortunately, these oral Cancers have a much lesser chance of being cured.

Another problem with cigar smoke is, that the smoker isn't the only one who inhales it. Unless a cigar is smoked in the open air outdoors, the people around him or her are bound to inhale the toxins and the carcinogens too. This is what's known as Secondhand Smoke. Secondhand smoke is the smoke that is emitted from the burning cigar. It's also the smoke that smokers who inhale release into the air. People who smoke cigarettes also give off Secondhand Smoke. But the difference is, that because cigars are usually longer and thicker in size, they hold more tobacco than a cigarette. Not only that, but because cigars are larger, they burn for a longer period of time. Thus, more smoke is caused by a cigar than by a cigarette.

Since the tobacco in cigarettes are usually wrapped in a thin paper, the paper doesn't account for many added toxins and carcinogens. But being that cigars are wrapped in tobacco, their wrappers add to the release of carbon monoxide, nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, benzene, arsenic, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, et cetera.

According to the American Cancer Society, (ACS), if you want to be healthier, you should not smoke cigars, cigarettes, pipes, or use any other tobacco products such as dipping snuff. The risk of getting several types of Cancer is just too great.

If you're a cigar smoker, and you need help to quit, consult your doctor or healthcare professional

for advice and/or aids that can help you kick the habit.

© Demand Media 2011