Q:
I have a couple of questions about smoking. Is it true that clove cigarettes are worse for you than regular cigarettes? Why? If you still get a 'buzz' from smoking, does that mean you are not yet addicted? Assuming that every inhalation of smoke does damage to your lungs, how long approximately must a person be smoking for serious lung damage to occur? (Assume the person smokes one cigarette per day for example purposes.) Does the tar from cigarettes come from the tobacco or from the additives the cigarette companies put in? Do filters really make any difference? Thanks!
A:
First, the nature of your questions suggests you are hoping there is a "safe" way to smoke cigarettes without the health consequences that many people suffer as a result of their smoking, and that they expose others to in terms of second hand smoke. There is no way to reassure you that is the case as there is no data anywhere that demonstrates the "safety" of any particular type of cigarette, no matter how seldom it is used.
It is always safest to not ever expose yourself to smoke, as a smoker, or in a second hand situation.
Clove cigarettes (which contain tobacco) are at least as dangerous, if not more dangerous than regular cigarettes because clove oil contains an anesthetic that literally "numbs" the bronchial tree so you are more apt to breathe smoke in more deeply and for longer inhalations. This exposes the respiratory system to carcinogens for longer periods of time.
Your addiction question is interesting as the "buzz" that you describe is exactly what the stimulant (nicotine included) addicted person is seeking in their drug use, so the lack of "buzz" does not mean "addiction" but it can mean there is increasing "tolerance" requiring increasing amounts of the drug to get the same effect.
There is no known exact dose/damage curve for cigarettes as individual susceptibility to lung damage is a confounding factor. There are some people who smoke 3 packs a day for 30 years and don't seem to suffer the same damage as someone who smokes 4 cigarettes a day for 2 years. There are people in their 30s with limited smoking histories who already have emphysema, or cardiovascular disease. How likely is that with one cigarette a day? Not as likely, but playing roulette with a known toxin and carcinogen is not anyone's idea of healthy or safe. Very few people can leave their cigarette use to one a day if they truly enjoy the habit.
Tar is a byproduct of burning of the tobacco and other (secret) ingredients in the cigarette. Filters can make some difference in the content of the smoke, but depending on how the smoker smokes, the amount of tar that gets into the lungs is variable (the standards are based on robotic smoking, which we all know is very different from humans inhaling and keeping smoke in their lungs longer for fuller effect).
Don't let yourself be tempted by the slick advertising schemes of the cigarette industry. Don't let your peers tell you that smoking, even a little, won't hurt your health in the long run. You don't know, and neither do they.
~The Doc
