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griffonwing

Can't Leave
Nov 12, 2014
498
21
Omaha AR
I am not so sure that I can trust WebMD.com anymore. I decided to compare nicotine levels between a cigarette, cigar, and pipe bowl. I found this link. http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/effects-of-smoking-pipes-and-cigars

I will copy/paste the article below to save time. Pay attention to when they say "Pipes and Cigars" and then immediately follow it up with Cigar specs, based on LARGE cigars.
----

Pipe and cigar smokers often wave off worries that smoking is bad for their health. They claim their habit is harmless and perpetuate the common misperception that pipes and cigars are somehow safer than cigarettes. In reality, these tobacco products carry the same health risks -- and sometimes even greater risks -- than cigarettes.
Cigars and pipes differ in design from cigarettes, which are made from tobacco wrapped in thin paper. Cigars are wrapped in tobacco leaves, and unlike cigarettes, they don't typically have filters. In pipes, the tobacco sits in a bowl at the end, and a stem connects the bowl to the mouthpiece. Pipes can be equipped with filters, however.
Another type of pipe, the water pipe, consists of a body filled with water, a bowl in which the tobacco is placed, and an attached tube and mouthpiece through which the pipe is smoked. Water pipes, or hookahs, originated in ancient Persia and India about 400 years ago and are still popular today. Hookahs are filled with fragrant tobaccos in a variety of flavors, such as cherry, apple, or mint.
Cigar and Pipe Smoking Just as Risky as Cigarettes

Cigar and pipe smokers often argue that their health isn't at risk because they only smoke one or two a day and they don't inhale. There is also the claim that pipes and cigars aren't addictive. Yet research shows that cigar and pipe smoking is every bit as dangerous as cigarette smoking, and possibly even more dangerous.
A single large cigar can contain more than a 1/2 ounce of tobacco -- as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes. One cigar also contains 100 to 200 milligrams of nicotine, while a cigarette averages only about 8 milligrams. That extra nicotine may be why smoking just a few cigars a week is enough to trigger nicotine cravings.
Health Effects of Smoking Pipes and Cigars

Here are just a few of the harmful health effects of smoking pipes and cigars:
Cancer. Even if you don't inhale, you can get a number of different cancers from smoking pipes and cigars. People who smoke cigars regularly are four to 10 times more likely than nonsmokers to die from cancers of the mouth, larynx, and esophagus. Oral cancer can develop anywhere the smoke touches, including the lips, mouth, throat, and tongue. People who inhale also increase their risk for cancers of the lung, pancreas, and bladder.
Lung disease . Cigar and pipe smoking double the risk for the airway damage that leads to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung disease that includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Smoking can also worsen existing asthma.
Heart disease . Smoking cigars or pipes increases the likelihood of having heart disease or a stroke. Cigars boost the risk of early death from coronary heart disease by 30%.
Teeth problems. Smoking pipes or cigars wreaks havoc on your mouth, contributing to gum disease, stained teeth, bad breath, and tooth loss. One study showed that pipe and cigar smokers had an average of four missing teeth.
Erectile dysfunction . Smokers are twice as likely to have erectile dysfunction as nonsmokers.
Cigars and pipes aren't just dangerous to the people who smoke them. They also give off secondhand smoke filled with toxic chemicals like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Because a cigar wrapper (which is made from a tobacco leaf) is less porous than a cigarette wrapper, it doesn't burn as thoroughly as a cigarette wrapper. This increases the concentration of cancer-causing substances like ammonia, tar, and carbon monoxide released into the air.
Despite their sweet aroma, water pipes are also dangerous to your health. During a typical hookah smoking session, you'll inhale 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke that you'd get from a cigarette. Water pipes deliver at least as much nicotine and toxins as cigarettes, and put users at similar risk for cancer and other smoking-related diseases.
The same advice is true for pipe and cigar smokers as for cigarette smokers: quit. If you can't kick the habit on your own, get help from your doctor, another health professional, or a smoking cessation service (1-800-QUIT-NOW). Also make sure to get regular checkups -- including mouth exams to look for signs of oral cancer -- and talk to your doctor about getting screened for lung cancer.
---------------------

Where is th information regarding pipes? They include pipes in their battering but give no stats whatsoever? I guess the information they have doesn't feed their agenda.
I have rarely read such unbalanced and biased bunk.

 
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delro

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 7, 2015
204
2
WebMD will convince anyone they have cancer or some other detrimental illness. Did not read.

 

tuold

Lifer
Oct 15, 2013
2,133
165
Beaverton,Oregon
I used to think when I read about things in the newspaper or saw things on television that I knew not to be true that there was some vast conspiracy going on. How could educated well informed people say such idiotic uniformed things unless there was some sort of plot somewhere? Well, in my declining years I've come to the realization that even professionals can be just plain stupid and lazy particularly in areas that really are not of interest to them.
The sad part of that is a lot other people read this sort of stuff on WebMD and take it for fact because it fits the standard narrative. One of my favorite quotes is in regard to this issue.
The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They are accepted by default.

- The Anti Industrial Revolution” – Ayn Rand

 

pipebaum81

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 23, 2014
669
235
THanks for the intersting read, griffonwing. It just furthers my poistion on life and its pursuits. Even if everything listed above is true I have no second thoughts about smoking. I do it because I enjoy it. That's it. If I lose years off my life then so be it. While I am around I will enjoy myself however I see fit.
j/B

 

griffonwing

Can't Leave
Nov 12, 2014
498
21
Omaha AR
I would have to agree with you there, JB. I am of the same thought.
No worries, Delro. It was a boring and lackluster read, at best.

 

jmmize

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 19, 2014
124
0
I am concerned about my health but I too choose to enjoy my pipe periodically!

 

oklansas

Can't Leave
Apr 16, 2013
441
0
DC
@griffonwing
Anti-smoking advocates have a tendency to lump all forms of tobacco usage together and then cite statistics than refer primarily to the smoking of cigarettes. To find pipe tobacco usage you have to go back to the 1979's Smoking and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (this report was a revision and update to the famous 1964 report that first, officially, outlined the dangers of tobacco use).
To summarize its findings -- Pipe smoking increases the mortality ratio slightly, when compared with non-smokers. However, the effect is minimal when compared to mortality ratio increase seen among cigarette smokers. Occasional Pipe smokers - those using four or fewer bowls of tobacco per day - were actually shown to have a lower mortality ratio than non-smokers. In other words, in 1964, the death rate was actually less for occasional pipe smokers than for the general population at large (keep in mind here that this takes into account the whole pop of the time, including cigarette smokers - which were a considerable number at that time).
Another Surgeon General's report in 1982 concluded pipe smokers had a 2 - 4.3 times greater risk of lung cancer than non-smokers. However, the studies upon which this conclusion is based did not differentiate between inhalers and non-inhalers. Presumably, the chance of lung cancer in non-inhaling pipe smokers is vastly lower.
Even more recently, coming with Obama's health legislation was a benefit analysis that came out of the FDA:

Buried deep in the federal government’s voluminous new tobacco regulations is a little-known cost-benefit calculation that public health experts see as potentially poisonous: the happiness quotient. It assumes that the benefits from reducing smoking — fewer early deaths and diseases of the lungs and heart — have to be discounted by 70 percent to offset the loss in pleasure that smokers suffer when they give up their habit.

read the FULL NYT ARTICLE
TL:DR

As with any tobacco use, your risk of certain health issues goes up - However, for non-inhaling pipe smokers, it is a vastly lower increase in risk than cigarette smokes. Basically, non-inhalation pipe smoking is, by far, the least risky form of tobacco use.

 

smeigs

Lifer
Jun 26, 2012
1,049
7
My wife is obsessed with webMD. She now thinks that she has every possible illness know to man.

 

oklansas

Can't Leave
Apr 16, 2013
441
0
DC
And that's while we will all be dead of stress (and boredom) when they take our tobacco away. :crazy:

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
Umm...
Clearly these numbers would be higher for people who smoke and much lower for people who have never smoked.
That means the number given is not representative of an individual smoker.
I'm still firmly in the camp that inhaling smoke is seriously dangerous, but people should have the freedom to take risks.

 

thehappypiper

Can't Leave
Feb 27, 2014
303
0
We all know several things;

cigarettes are a class apart. They can hardly be called tobacco, smell and taste offensive and are there for just one thing. Cigarettes are extremely harmful. Handrolling tobacco is usualy of far greater quality, but still presents many health problem due to inhalation. Cigars are often made from high quality tobacco and should not be inhaled as a matter of course. In fact there is no need to inhale a cigar. They are also very expensive and more difficult to maintain in prime condition. Pipe tobacco is often of the highest quality available [compare Union Square with the chemical-laden dross filling a cigarette], is rarely inhaled and actively decreases the blood pressure, creating endorphins and relaxation in those who indulge. Yes, there is an increased risk in mouth cancer. Of course there is. But the risk of cancer to a pipe-smoker in the countryside is far less than the risk of cancer to non-smokers living in Los Angeles or Shanghai. It is also absolutely certain, that the medical profession has decided that all tobacco smoking is Public Enemy No.1 regardless of the facts, without differentiation between different forms or habitual use. Health consultants will drive their BMW 7 series to their clinic and warn people about the dangers of inhaling dangerous noxious fumes! What doctors should be advising cigarette smokers to do is put down their Marlboros and take up the pipe!

I don't know why, but I have had a real craving for some Condor of late. And I can't find it anywhere around here!

 

mustanggt

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 6, 2012
819
4
My Dad's best friend died in the 1970's from lung cancer. Never smoked a day in his life. Ironically my dad quit the pipe thereafter and quick cigarettes in the 60's and took up the pipe. All the BS info and studies out there convinced my wife that nicotine is what causes cancer. Of course I had to explain to her what did and that nicotine is just an addictive substance nothing more. I told her that I love to smoke and it gives me a relaxed piece of mind which contributes to a much better life than without it.

 

bcharles123

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 18, 2014
236
1
I'm a competitive powerlifter. There is an amazing amount of disinformation in weightlifting, exercise, and nutrition. E.g. Squats are bad for your knees, presses are bad for your shoulders, deadlifts are bad for your back, .....
On the one hand, i suppose the general wisdom might be well intended, on the other (extreme) it is simple ignorance, health workers included. In lifting circles, we call it bro-science as in "hey bro, did you try that new XYZ supplement? It added 10% to my lat pull!"
This isn't to say I claim to know what is optimum either. But most people don't. Including most Dr.s. Same thing for pipes. I would guess that most Dr.s that have an opinion about the effects of casual pipe smoking vs. other types have not studied this at all. Not one minute. If you ask one, he or she might reference WEBMD, however authoritative they sound.
Old joke: what's the difference between God and a Dr.? God doesn't think he's a Dr!
Anyway, we pick what we want to believe as true, and reject what we don't like as garbage. That's human nature.

 

mustanggt

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 6, 2012
819
4
Another thing I'll say about this patently absurd BS is that I am the master of my own life and I don't need a bankrupt official of a bankrupt government to tell me how to live my life. Now that the NSA knows all that we do I expect to be rounded up in the future for crimes against the people and will be rounded up and put in one of those fine FEMA gulag camps just for those of us cheeky enough to tell them where they can GO EFF Themselves. :nana:

 
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griffonwing

Can't Leave
Nov 12, 2014
498
21
Omaha AR
Good comments to all. I'm glad that I am not the only one to see the insanity and fear-mongering in relation to our past-time.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,844
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
WEB MD is a compilation of medical knowledge intended to supply users with information relevant to a diagnosis that has been supplied by a physician. It is not a tool for making a diagnosis, but has become a favorite amongst people crippled with severe hypochondria. My son went through days of panic over the information contained on that site before he finally realized that it is more misleading than anything else. Fortunately he has finally stopped using it. That site should be banned. It is, as it currently exists, a complete and utter menace. It is a vampire, stalking victims.

 

pitchfork

Lifer
May 25, 2012
4,030
605
I remember that time, after looking it up on the internetz, that I had appendicitis and just knew my appendix was ready to burst at any moment. My symptoms were EXACTLY the same as what I read online for appendicitis and my side hurt something fierce! And then I realized that MY appendix was on the wrong side of my abdomen. LOL
Turned out to be just a strained muscle from pitching a baseball. (I still have my appendix.)
BTW, great point about "bro science." Everyone does it -- doctors, climate scientists, fund managers, historians, foreign policy wonks... Always good to keep that in mind.

 

kane

Can't Leave
Dec 2, 2014
429
3
Yes indeed. It's a piece of the big picture of stress and fear mongering, defeating the spirit, and putting people in a state of powerless victims in need of some authority to help and protect them.
They can have my pipe......when they pry it from my cold dead lips!

 
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