Recently, bidi smoking has emerged as a novel way to smoke. The allure, much like with water pipes, is the exotic nature of this type of smoking. The bidi's are hand-rolled cigarettes and are immensely popular in South Asia and India. In addition, much like the water pipe, it is perceived in the west, as a safer alternative to the standard cigarette.
So with that in mind, we here at Unbiased found an article that addressed this question of whether bidi smoking is safer than conventional cigarettes. Cancer Causes and Control published "Association of tobacco habits, including bidi smoking, with overall and site-specific cancer incidence: results from the Mumbai cohort study" by Pednekar, et al. Their study looked at the relationship between bidis and other forms of tobacco use with cancer rates in a metropolitan developing country.
There results shouldn't really surprise any of this blog's readers. The oral cancer incidence with bidi smokers was 42% higher than in cigarette smokers. The increase was 69% for all respiratory and intrathoracic organs combined. The lung cancer rate increased by 35% and the larynx cancer rate increased by 112%.
Smokeless tobacco caused the usual smokeless tobacco cancers of the lip, digestive tract, pharynx, mouth, respiratory organs and intrathoracic organs. Nothing Earth-shattering here.
If anyone thinks there is a safe way to smoke or ingest tobacco, they're kind of fooling themselves. Listen, tobacco kills. I think we'd all agree with that statement. It doesn't matter how you roll it or how you suck on it, your risk for cancer is elevated the moment it touches your lips. Why be subject to the risk if you don't have to be. There are many stop smoking benefits available. You don't have to go very far to find them.
