Contrary to popular belief , cigars can be just as harmful to health as cigarettes, according to a new study carried out by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Although most believe that cigars are less harmful to health because they do not usually inhale smoke, the amount of toxic is the same. To reach this conclusion, the scientists used data from the NHANES ( National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ), analyzing a total of 25,522 subjects selected for the presence of five substances in the blood or urine that indicate exposure to tobacco : lead , cadmium, arsenic, cotinine and the carcinogen NNK.
According to the researchers, cigar smokers had much higher levels of toxic substances in the body than non-smokers and that these substances were very similar to the harmful substances found in cigarette smokers. In addition, the experts also discovered – in the cigar smokers – almost identical concentrations of a strong carcinogen specific to cigarette smokers, NNK in the urine.
The results, which have been published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention , reveal that " smoking cigars exposes users to similar types of harmful and carcinogenic agents as the consumer of cigarettes", according to Chen Jiping, leader of the study.
