SMOKING Cigars can reduce cancer risk

igarette smokers who have difficulty giving up can halve their risk of dying of lung cancer or heart disease by switching to pipes or cigars.

A study of 21,000 male smokers followed from the late 1970s to the early 1990s found those who had switched to pipes or cigars in the 20 years before the study began smoked less tobacco than those who continued with cigarettes, and this largely explained their reduced risk.

However, their risk was 50 per cent higher than pipe and cigar smokers who had never smoked cigarettes, probably because of their habit of inhaling, according to the study by researchers at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine published in the British Medical Journal.

All pipe and cigar smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer than lifelong non-smokers - and than former smokers who have given up. Jeremy Laurance