By 1967, there was evidence that, including women, there
were on any average day 800 deaths in the United States attributable to
cigarette smoking: 175 due to cancer, 375 to diseases of heart and circulatory
system, 250 to chronic bronchitis, emphysema, peptic ulcers, and other
diseases. Cigarette smoking is the major villain, but studies do show some
relationship of cigar and pipe smoking to coronary heart disease and
circulatory system disease, and to cancers of mouth, pharynx, and larynx.
The
non inhaling mouth smoker, which is what the usual cigar and pipe smoker tends
to be, must realize that there is still 25 to 50 percent absorption of nicotine
from the mouth (compared to 90 percent from the lungs when smoke is inhaled)
and for the heavy mouth smoker this can be a real hazard. But the overall death
rate is much less influenced by cigar and pipe smoking. For example, for men
smoking only cigars the death rate is 22 percent higher than for nonsmokers
between ages 45 and 64, and 5 percent higher after 65. For pipe smokers, it is
11 percent higher than for nonsmokers between 45 and 64, 2 percent higher after
65.
THE HARMFUL SUBSTANCES
Tobacco smoke is made up of gases, vapors, and chemical
compounds with the proportions varying depending upon the type of tobacco, how
it is smoked, and the burning temperature. While a cigarette is being puffed,
the burning zone temperature reaches about 1580°F (water boils at 212°F). One
of the potentially harmful gases in cigarette smoke is a powerful poison,
hydrogen cyanide. Another is carbon monoxide, which is present in a
concentration 400 times greater than what is considered a safe level in
industry. Carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying
substance in red blood cells.
Studies indicate that as much as 6 percent of the hemoglobin
in the blood of an average smoker is taken up and inactivated by carbon
monoxide; in a heavy smoker, 8 percent. Taking the place of oxygen, carbon
monoxide leads to shortness of breath on exertion.
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