Why does everyone associate EVERYTHING tobacco with the hazards of Cigarettes?

[nymtber]

I ask a pretty easy sounding question, but really, WHY is it that people want to associate any kind of tobacco smoking with the hazards of Cigarettes? Yes, I will agree, Cigarettes are TERRIBLE for you. I smoked (cigarettes) on and off for two years, and it took me a month of strenuous exercise to get my ability to breathe back. However pipe tobacco cigarillos and Cigars have never left me coughing or short on breath, even when a 5 pack of Black and milds would last maybe a week (same amount of tobacco in a week as my average cigarette intake) because I just don't inhale the smoke from the Cigars/pipe tobacco.

I read a shooting forum, and holy crap if you mention smoking a cigar or pipe you get mobbed by "oh you should quit your going to get lung cancer!"

As a person that went 5 years without smoking tobacco, in order to ensure I didn't turn to cigarettes (and I wont!), I get angered by this. I have lost a Grandmother to cigarettes, and my grandfather went through chemo and was pretty close to not making it, but my family did all we could to remind him how much he had to live for. Both smoked multiple packs a day, although I don't remember my grandfather smoking (and im 29). Also, quitting smoking was physically hard for me, but not mentally (I knew I wanted to quit), yet not smoking cigars/pipe tobacco is as easy as not smoking them. They load cigarettes with all kinds of chemicals that I just don't think are present in cigars/pipe.

Sure, nothing smoked is gonna be GOOD for you. But I believe us cigar/pipe smokers have a LOT less chance of getting disease as the coffin nail smokers...

Just my random ramblings on this Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[luvmysuper]

There are people in the world that truly believe that an austere lifestyle devoid of all risk, in order to increase the chances of hanging around on this blue marble a little bit longer, is worth the loss of pleasure and enjoyment available in moderately partaking in behavior that is even slightly risky.
You can no more reason with these people than you can a brick wall.

Enjoy your pipe and cigars (and your port, beer, spirits and wine) and pay no attention to the naysayers.
Having them believe what you believe will neither increase or lessen the enjoyment you get from it.

 

[mmack66]

Depending on the frequency of your cigar/pipe smoking, the risks may be similar to those of cigarette smoking.

 

[Devilpup]

I believe that it's because most people these days only have experience with cigerettes. I don't think Id seen a proper cigar in person until I was 18 and a pipe until this year when I went to college. As for the effects yes they're not the greatest for you but used in moderation they actualy are not the hazardous( in perspective). And a study done by (if I remember correctly) university of Michigan found that on average pipe smokers live 3-4 years longer. IMHO I'd rather die 10 year earlier if I was happy and enjoying my days than live eating rice cakes and water while sitting in some sanitized hole breathing air fit for a microchip factory.


Don't get me wrong though I'm not denying smokings bad for you especially when done like Grant (15 cigars a day) or Twain ("I smoke with all my might and allow no intervals" and once admitted to smoking "15 cigars in my 5 hours of labors"). But I believe in moderation it can be a pastime enjoyed with few side effects. I average 1 cigar or pipe a week, at most I have 3.

 

[Argonaut]

There are people in the world that truly believe that an austere lifestyle devoid of all risk, in order to increase the chances of hanging around on this blue marble a little bit longer, is worth the loss of pleasure and enjoyment available in moderately partaking in behavior that is even slightly risky.
You can no more reason with these people than you can a brick wall.

Enjoy your pipe and cigars (and your port, beer, spirits and wine) and pay no attention to the naysayers.
Having them believe what you believe will neither increase or lessen the enjoyment you get from it.

I remember an interview with Lou Holtz when he was still the coach at Notre Dame. He had come under some scrutiny due to the fact that he was a known cigarette smoker. His response to his doctor and his friends that told him he should quit smoking and start exercising daily was, "You people know you're going to die eventually anyway, don't you?" That's the one of the few quotes from a "celebrity" that stuck with me. As for the folks who lump all smoking in with the deadly sins, try to understand their pain. It must hurt like Hell to tie their shoes every morning with that stick up their......

 

[nymtber]

Good responses, everyone! I know tobacco is not good in excess. Neither is alcohol. Or breathing.

Heck, we start to die the minute we are out of the womb...

but a few cigars/pipes a week surely won't hurt me. Heck a few cigarettes/week wont, but I wont ever have another. The problem is smoking multiple cigarettes PER DAY! I could not smoke more than one cigar/pipe a day, nooo way! Look at george burns, the guy always had a cigar, he lived quite a while

 

[Go West Young Man]

The problems is that very few people smoke only 'a few cigarettes'.

 

[luvmysuper]

The problems is that very few people smoke only 'a few cigarettes'.

Fortunately, he's not talking about a few cigarettes, but a few cigars or a few bowls of a pipe.

Perhaps the reason that many associate pipes / cigars et al with cigarettes is that the hazards of Cigarettes are well publicized, and since cigarettes are tobacco, there is a natural assumption that the use of any tobacco related product is as hazardous as cigarettes.
If you think about it, it would be surprising for people who don't use any tobacco product to think of cigars and pipes differently than they do cigarettes.
And there are enough callous and careless smokers in the world to give everyone who partakes in ANY tobacco product a bad name.

 

[nymtber]

The problems is that very few people smoke only 'a few cigarettes'.

Yes, one of my many thoughts on the subject. I never enjoyed cigarettes, I NEEDED them. I enjoy cigars/pipe. I enjoy them like a fine wine or whiskey, and only on occasion

Yea, most non-smokers think its all evil. I hate that. Of course non-drinkers can act the same way at times...

 

[Old Man Army]

As for the folks who lump all smoking in with the deadly sins, try to understand their pain. It must hurt like Hell to tie their shoes every morning with that stick up their......

That's about the truth.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Fortunately, he's not talking about a few cigarettes, but a few cigars or a few bowls of a pipe.

Perhaps the reason that many associate pipes / cigars et al with cigarettes is that the hazards of Cigarettes are well publicized, and since cigarettes are tobacco, there is a natural assumption that the use of any tobacco related product is as hazardous as cigarettes.
If you think about it, it would be surprising for people who don't use any tobacco product to think of cigars and pipes differently than they do cigarettes.
And there are enough callous and careless smokers in the world to give everyone who partakes in ANY tobacco product a bad name.

I'll buy that. Cigarette smokers do themselves no favors in the PR department, and that unfairly taints all tobacco products.

 

[nymtber]

exactly.. if you don't like cigars, pipes, whiskey, fast cars, playboy, whatever that's fine I'm not telling you you have to enjoy any of them. just don't preach to me.

Well said!

I tell every cigarette smoker to stop. Its a bad nasty habit that sucks you out of money for almost no pleasure. I could smoke a cig in 3 minutes in my heyday of smoking them, there was no pleasure involved at all!

A pack here cost about $9. That is a lot of bowls out of a pipe, and at 20+ mins each, wayyyy more pleasure

 

[dfennewald]

You are quite right, cigar & pipe smoking pose SLIGHTLY less risk for developing lung cancer, the key word is slightly as they are still full of carcinogens. They also carry a higher risk of skin cancer and throat cancer. People think they are safe with chew, but the risk is still high. Here's a realistic comparison, 26 years in the Navy and don't know a single person who has died in combat but I've been in four burials at sea for cancer due to tobacco use, all under the age of 50. They each had different preferences for their choice of tobacco, the end results were the same. ............ I'm not one to tell anyone not to smoke, just understand your shaving years off.

 

[GianquiMan]

Good responses, everyone! I know tobacco is not good in excess. Neither is alcohol. Or breathing.

Heck, we start to die the minute we are out of the womb...

but a few cigars/pipes a week surely won't hurt me. Heck a few cigarettes/week wont, but I wont ever have another. The problem is smoking multiple cigarettes PER DAY! I could not smoke more than one cigar/pipe a day, nooo way! Look at george burns, the guy always had a cigar, he lived quite a while

But you need to breathe and some alcoholic drinks in moderation (like red wine) can have positive side effects. You can't really say that about moderate tobacco use. It's mostly bad other than some relaxation, the "buzz", and/or whatever good feelings you associate with it. Don't get me wrong, I've had a few cigars and enjoyed them, but I have to disagree that a few cigars/pipes a week SURELY won't hurt anyone. Everybody's body is YMMV but it'll hurt most.

With that said, some people smoke, some people drive too fast, and some people eat McDonald's everyday. All bad for your health. Tobacco is just too ridiculously easy to avoid though.

 

[GianquiMan]

Parabens will kill all of us first...

 

[Hammer]

Life's Terminal....Period.

Carry On

 

[Pilotgod]

I smoke maybe 4 to 6 bowls a week on average from my pipe, maybe a half dozen cigars a year, and have a nice dark beer (stouts, porters, Belgians) or IPA in the evening about three times a week. I have had people tell my I am living in "vice and sin". But, the way I look at it, I enjoy the flavors of the smoke and alcohol, I never consume enough of any in a sitting to be "affected" (buzzed for beer, or nicotine headache) and at no point do I ever get "Man I need a smoke/drink" and times when I have run out of either and funds were tight, I have never had an issue waiting, so I am not addicted. As long as it is something you enjoy and your harming nobody other than yourself in the process, who is to say what is right or wrong. People ride motorcycles, but it is safer in a car. People skydive, but the plane is perfectly capable of landing. Do what makes you happy and tell anyone in your way to **** off.

 

[rickcharles606]

Interesting question to say the least. I work in the tobacco industry, and have quite a bit of insight and first hand experience with the "negative PR" that is associated with tobacco. First, let me say this...smoking ANY tobacco product and inhaling the smoke is the worst possible way to use tobacco. That's no secret. So, cigs are the worst, pipe and cigar next in line, smokeless and nasal snuff are next and then you have Swedish snus bringing up the rear as the "least harmful" of tobacco products. Of course then you could include nicotine replacement therapies, but they don't contain tobacco...only nicotine.

Tobacco is not an evil plant. It's a member of the Nightshade family, as are tomatoes and eggplant...both contain nicotine as well. The problem is that tobacco companies ferment and process tobacco leaves for cigs, cigars/pipe tobacco and smokeless (dip/chew). That fermentation process allows TSNA's (tobacco specific nitrosamines) to grow, and they are what primarily cause the cancers...not to mention a few other goodies added by the tobacco companies. There are TSNA's in most everything we consume...bacon, french roast coffee and many other things. Swedish snus is the ONLY tobacco product that I know of that isn't manufactured with fermented tobacco...instead we steam pasteurize (like your milk and cheese) the tobacco to kill nearly all of the TSNA's, and bring them into acceptable levels.

I smoked two packs of cigs a day for 20yrs (Camel Wide Lights) and spent the last 10yrs of that trying everyway I knew to quit. Not because of external pressures or social stigma, but because I was sick of being RJR's *****, lol. I tried every way known to man...then found snus and quit the first week. That being said, I still believe that if a person wants to smoke...then smoke, it's your life and who am I to tell you how to live it or treat your body. I despise someone that tries to compell or impose their will on another person. I'm referring directly to the anti-tobacco lobby that exists in our country. Cigarettes were the low hanging fruit for them because everyone knows how harmful they can be to our bodies, but it's still a legal product in our country. If it's so deadly...then impose an outright ban. Ahhhh, but therein lies the problem...our country makes ridiculous amounts of tax revenue on tobacco products. Our elected officials do a dance with the anti tobacco lobby, allowing them to impose smoking restrictions and bans in public placesand increased taxation but never an outright ban...due to the high levels of tax revenue that would be lost. Now, who else benefits from this relationship?? Big Pharma does, with their various nicotine replacement therapies; gums, lozenges, and other devices. Granted these therapies are safer than smoking, but a smoker has other options to turn to and would still be able to enjoy tobacco in a much safer way.

Now..the answer to the OP; the anti tobacco lobby has pushed so hard and our politicians have given their constant misrepresentations of tobacco merit by allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco products of all kinds. Also, the pharmaceutical companies have lobbied against tobacco products very heavily and assist the anti tobacco lobby in the US to further the stigma of all tobacco products. Sadly...my tobacco product (Swedish snus) is also lumped into the same social stereotypes and stigmas as other more harmful tobacco products. Like I said earlier...cigs were the low hanging fruit, but sadly cigar smokers and pipe smokers will start seeing the same issues that cigarette smokers have seen. Increased social pressure to quit (due to misinformation and under education of the public), higher taxes and of course the dreaded smoking bans, lol.

All we can do is continue to educate NON tobacco users about the real risks with tobacco use, and how harm reduction can save millions of lives and reduce the amount of money spent on tobacco related illness in this country. Then vote out the politicians that are in bed with the anti tobacco lobby and big pharma. Again...as an American and veteran I believe it's a person's right to smoke if they choose and no one should be able to keep them from it...because tobacco is legal not to mention the vast amounts of tax revenue it brings in annually.

Here's something to think about...what about the MILLIONS of people that have smoked cigs, cigars, pipes and chewed tobacco that DIDN'T get cancer?? Do you think genetics might play a part in the cancer, and possibly some people are just predisposed to getting cancer from excessive TSNA ingestion.

 

[craigruhl]

I am an ex-smoker because I had a near fatal heart attack that was primarily caused by life style - including my smoking cigarettes for 40 years. Yes, I was addicted and unable to stop smoking on my own. Health issues cured that.

My advice to anyone is to enjoy their life in whatever manner they see fit. The main caution that I give is to never, ever, let anything or anyone have control over you. The slippery slope here is that we often do not know when or where we cross that line between free choice and addiction and we are the least capable at making that judgment. The occasional pipe or cigar or even a cigarette or two is probably not going to kill you - unless it becomes more than that. Smoking in an enclosed room is unhealthy regardless of whether you inhale directly from the pipe, cigar or cigarette because you are inhaling second hand smoke all the time. The truth is that we do not know if we will be the one that gets cancer, a stroke or heart disease from smoking until it is too late.

Smoking is no longer for me. I find the smell of burning tobacco to be offensive and nauseating which is probably a good thing since smoking would be dangerous for me now. But I do support those who wish to enjoy it in moderation.

 

[Snuff-Belgium]

I quit smoking cigarettes but smoke the occasional pipe and have been a heavy tobacco snuff user for over 40 years. My nose has not fallen off yet ;-)