USC Health Now

Q. I am concerned about a friend who smokes cigars on a daily basis. He says they’re not nearly as unhealthy as cigarettes, since you don’t inhale them. What are the possible dangers?

A. Steve Sussman, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, says that cigar smoking can increase the risk of serious illness or death. In terms of health risks, puffing on a stogie but not inhaling is roughly the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes. Inhaling boosts the exposure to the equivalent of as many as three cigarettes. Sussman says that tobacco use accounts for 84 percent of all lung cancers and that smoking is the cause of one out of every six deaths in the U.S. A person’s health risk is directly related to how much they smoke, and the problem with tobacco is that it is addictive, driving users to maintain high exposure levels for prolonged periods of time, Sussman says. For casual smokers, however, only one cigar a week is unlikely to have serious health consequences. “That’s the rule of thumb: no more than one cigar a week. But there are a lot of limitations even for once-a-week smokers. For example, don’t inhale and don’t smoke around others because that increases their exposure to carcinogens as well,” he says. Sussman adds that the best way to limit the risk from smoking is simple: give it up.