Am I a smoker?

[craig]

About a ton an acre for Virginia tobacco, but I took soil science 30 years ago, so my memory is not that great.

And, I made an error, as food-grade is not the right term because that means something else. What I meant was, the kinds of phosphate fertilizer used in tobacco production are (hopefully) not used for food or feed production. Within the US, the source is, IIRC, apatite from the south-eastern US. Other countries have other sources.

General discussion of the American context (US EPA): http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources...rial_cigarette Note the end note. Nobody really knows what is in US-market cigars.

... and Doc, the normal curve is bell_shaped, not brick-shaped. What is applicable to the population does not apply with certainty to any individual. Somebody wins the lottery, it doesn't mean that everyone will win the lottery. Some people taste chocolate in cigars; it doesn't mean you will. ;-)

[ggiese]

In youth - I jumped on theories and believed them to be Gospel. Wisdom, though, comes a healthy amount of skepticism. For example - eating mashed potatoes causes criminal behavior. I can produce research that seems to bear that out, but is it true?

I don't know what this "slipstream smoke" issue is, but I do know that it is not best to be in a smoky environment where the source of the smoke is something that is laden with chemicals. Intuition (and scientific studies that back up that intuition) tells me there's a greater chance of developing some serious health issues after sucking in smoke that somes from that burning plastic chair, versus an equaly quantity of smoke from a burning cigar. Someone bitching at me because they live 3 doors down and "smell" my cigar smoke and it's a "health hazard" is just plain old CRAZY!!!

And to Doc's point - bell shaped or brick shaped curve aside. I know those individuals that smoke like a chimney and have no apparent ill effect - yet I know others that have seemingly smoke free lives that caused lung cancer. Intuition (backed up by scientific study) shows there is definitely a genetic component to disease process, and not everyone is affected by smoke in the same way. Intution leads me to the conclusion that a smoke free environment would be better than a smoke filled environment to decrease the chance that those genetically susceptible to disease are not unusually exposed.

[JiveTurkey]

Well by definition one who smokes a cigar is a smoker. But, I would definitely agree there's a huge difference between the typical cigar smoker and typical cigarette smoker, when it comes to frequency, health, compulsion, etc. Of course there are exceptions to each. It's not fair or accurate to lump most cigar smokers and the very occasional cigarette smoker with the stereotypical, pack or two a day, cigarette smoker.