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Het roken van sigaren of pijp veroorzaakt net zo veel risico
op hartziektes en kanker als het roken van sigaretten blijkt uit een studie
onder 7100 mensen en over een periode van 30 jaar. In die periode stierven 50%
meer rokers dan niet rokers.
The health risks of cigar or
pipe smoking, from cancer to heart disease, are as great as those of relatively
light cigarette smoking, according to a UK study.
Researchers found that among
more than 7,100 middle-aged men, those who smoked cigars or pipes faced higher
risks of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other ills, compared with
non-smokers. They were also 49 percent more likely to die over the two-decade
study period.
These risks were on par with
those of men who smoked up to 19 cigarettes a day, according to findings
published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Tobacco use in its various
forms has long been known to carry serious health risks. Yet there's been a
popular perception that cigars, which enjoyed a surge in popularity starting in
the 1990s, offer a "safer" way to smoke.
Even medical research has been
divided on the extent of the risk that cigars and pipes pose, according to the
authors of the new study. They note that some studies have suggested the habit
is less hazardous than cigarette smoking, while others indicate that cigars, in
particular, may cause as much smoking-related disease as cigarettes do.
To investigate, A.G. Shaper
and colleagues at Royal Free and University College Medical School in London
looked at data from a long-running health study of British men. All participants
were in their 40s and 50s when the study began in the 1970s.
The study included both
primary cigar or pipe smokers---those who had never smoked cigarettes--and
secondary cigar or pipe smokers--former cigarette smokers who had switched to
cigars or pipes.
Shaper's team found that
together, these two groups were 69 percent more likely than non- smokers to
suffer a fatal or non-fatal heart attack or die of cardiac arrest. They were 62
percent more likely to have a fatal or non-fatal stroke.
Both groups also had
heightened risks of smoking-related cancers, mainly lung cancer. Other
smoking-related cancers included cancers of the mouth, throat, pancreas, kidney
and bladder.
"Overall," the
researchers write, "the pipe/cigar smokers, whether primary or secondary,
experienced much the same outcomes as regular light cigarette smokers."
These findings, they conclude,
add to evidence that "all tobacco smoking, not just cigarette smoking,
should be regarded as hazardous to health."
SOURCE: International Journal of Epidemiology, 2003.