Is occasional cigar smoking really that harmful?

Yes jake, since it can cause lip cancer, tongue cancer, lung cancer, and other facial cancers.

Tobacco has taken a bad rap lately, and the occasional cigar is no more harmful to you than the occasional alcoholic drink. Like you said, you don’t inhale, and you aren’t chuffing on a cigar 24/7. Go ahead, enjoy your cigar, and tell the smoking Nazis to go back inside, even if it is a nice day.

Life is full of dangers and threats to your health. The stuff that comes out of your car’s tailpipe is deadly, but no one has banned automobiles yet. Its a matter of convenience. Remember, plenty of non-smokers get lip, mouth, tongue and other facial cancers. As long as you are old enough to smoke, you can make up your own mind, can’t you?

enjoy the stogy, my friend.

Where are all those who cry out about the passive smoke hazard factor, cigars must be as bad for the bystanders as cigarettes.

I personally don’t care, I agree about the air we breathe when we walk out the door. I just think it is curious that you aren’t under fire (no pun intended).

I smoke several imported (Germany, Denmark, Switzerland) mini cigarillos a day and enjoy the heck out of them. Sure there is a risk, but nearly everything enjoyable carries risk. The choice is yours.

Cigar smoking does pose a serious risk to your health compared to not smoking cigars. Even if you do not inhale there is an increased risk of heart and lung disease over non smokers (1 cigar a day would double your risk). As well as the risk of oral cancers there is also an increased risk oesophageal cancer and there is a very strong link between cigar smoking and cancer of the pancreas.

All these risks are relative. The more you smoke the greater the risk and like @whatthefluther says, nearly everything in life, enjoyable or otherwise, carries a risk but don’t sit there and try to kid yourself it is not impacting your health.

3 cigars a week is NOT the occasional cigar. The occasional cigar is one every odd month.

This page contains some good information, including the fact that one cigar can have up to one pack of cigarette’s worth of tobacco. Ugh. Continuing, that page notes that the cancer rates for oral, throat, and esophageal cancers are the same smoking cigars and cigarettes. And even though you don’t purposefully inhale the smoke, you are inhaling parts of it by being in that same room.

I would say the occasional cigar, like once a month, is an acceptable risk. But three a week, that’s a bit much, I would say that’s like someone smoking a pack a week, and is cause for concern.

You kidding me? I smoke blunts on the daily and I feel great.

everything in moderation?

but yeah, it does still cause damage, but the question is whether you want to risk it. it’s better than smoking a cigar every day, obviously. but it’s worse than not smoking it all. we all do things that are harmful to us though, so pick and choose wisely, my friend!

@CodexNecro possibly the best answer yet…...

2–3 times a week sounds like too much to me. I’d limit it to a couple times a year. Heavy

Speaking of second hand smoke, I saw a comedy routine where a guy is puffing away on a huge Churchill type cigar in a restaurant when a lady walks up and scolds him. She tells him that second hand smoke has been found to be even more dangerous than first hand smoke. He pulls hard on his cigar, lets out a huge cloud of smoke and tells her, “Looks like I made the right decision then.”

My father in law was never seen without a cigar in his mouth. He died of Alzheimer’s at age 75. He Loved his cigars! His wife, exposed to this for 66 years, died at 96 after an arm injury. A nurse aide turned her over using one of her arms which is what killed HER mother.
Both died from an infected arm.