How does a cigar differ from a cigarette?

How does a cigar differ from a cigarette?

Linda Hyder Ferry (Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What is a 'hookah' or 'shisha'?; Are hookah or shisha water pipes safer than cigarettes?; What is a 'bidi'? and more...

A cigar is manufactured quite differently than a cigarette. A cigarette is a composite delivery device with crushed tobacco leaves, chemicals, and things to make it burn. It is a very complex manufacturing process to create a cigarette with the paper around the outside, with the flavors, and the aromas inside. A cigar is made quite differently. A cigar is tightly rolled specific leaves from a certain type of tobacco plant. Some of them have some flavors or aromas put in them, but most of them are "very natural" and simply are just these tightly woven and rolled up leaves. A cigar when burned, because it doesn't have all the manufacturing to make it burn effectively, is a very inefficient device to burn tobacco and inhale. Therefore its carbon monoxide levels are tremendously higher than smoking a cigarette. Carbon monoxide is not safe and all of the other particle matters that come through burnt cigarettes versus cigar smoke are different in ph levels, therefore meaning the acid and base balance, meaning where is it absorbed, the mouth, the throat or all the way into the lungs. Some cigar smoke does not get inhaled all the way into the lungs. Some cigar smokers have the tendency to puff and blow but that doesn't mean that some of the smoke is still in the air around you when you take a breath in doesn't get into your lungs.