Safe low level smoking?!


Question: This is one for doctors and scientists only please. Is it possible to smoke the occasional cigarette with significantly lowered risks to the health just as there is a safe level of alcohol consumption or is the situation different?

Some people have argued that the lungs can deal with the toxins from one cigarette without causing harm or is this a fallacy?


Answers: This is one for doctors and scientists only please. Is it possible to smoke the occasional cigarette with significantly lowered risks to the health just as there is a safe level of alcohol consumption or is the situation different?

Some people have argued that the lungs can deal with the toxins from one cigarette without causing harm or is this a fallacy?

Alcohol may be good for your heart, but even one drink a day damages your liver-I'd say that's counterproductive. Cigarettes provide no benefit to any part of your body. Your lungs can clear toxins, but the more you smoke the more you kill your body's ability to clear the toxins; as they build up you get the effects (cancer, emphysema, etc.). So one cigarette may be fine. But one cigarette every day begins to kill off your body's natural defenses.

EVERY cigarette does you harm, but obviously the less you smoke the less harmful it is

you cant compare cigarettes to drinks cos alcohol does have some benefits to health, but cigarettes dont

People die more with Alcohol,,,,,than smoking,,,,,,But the Government wont stop you Drinking,,,,,,

I agree with the answers above. I'm not a doctor or scientist but I'd like to share my views anyway. I think that the only thing about how many cigarettes you smoke, is how much damage you do to your body. Apart from what the smokers I know say as benefits such as feeling happier, serving an addiction or fitting in with friends, there are no benefits with cigarettes. This is different to alcohol which in small amounts can actually help the body. Alcohol is also a drink containing water, which if good in no other way, at least stops one from feeling thirsty lol. Of course this is my rather less professional opinion than that of a doctor or scientist.

Of course it is. 1 cigarette a day will probably not harm you, I would doubt there are any studies to back this up but there are studies that show that low level smoking is less dangerous than a higher consumption - for very obvious reasons.

The problem is two-fold. Firstly you will still be allowing poison into your body and although it is obviously safer it is not as safe as not smoking. Think of it as hitting your arm with a hammer. It is better to do it 1 time rather than 20 times a day but it is better not to do it at all.

The second problem is that smoking is drug addiction to Nicotine. By having just one cigarette a day you are prolonging your dependency and addicition to Nicotine and allowing it to remain in your system. The nature if the beast is that you will want to smoke more and it would take a tremondous amount of self discipline to only smoke one per day.


gordon - do you have any stats to back up that statement??? You are grossly mistaken, smoking kills massively more people that any other lifestyle factor.

I do think you can have the odd ciggarette without it doing much harm. In small quantities it should not be more harmful than say spending the day in a polluted city, so yes still harmful but in the grand sceme of things i doubt it will do you to much harm. I am not a doctor so i could be way of the mark on that but just a guess. Gordon 3, dont know where you get your figures from but more people die by a long way from smoking than drinking, i know this fact because a friend of mine has worked in both fields.





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