How dangerous is social smoking?

Question

I only smoke when I'm around my friends who smoke. We're talking, like, maybe two cigarettes every week. Tops. How dangerous is this? I'm not addicted. But can so few give me some kind of lung cancer 50 years from now? And don't give me any of that anti-drug bullshit. Give me the truth.

Answer 1

Now we not only have social drinking but we have social smoking too. Nice. And why do you call anti smoking arguments bullshit but very afraid are asking could I die from my social cigarettes?

I will not repeat GF's excellent and precise advice but let me tell you this little story. Some time ago a patient came for a check up. He told me he had given up smoking 25 years ago. Believe it or not but on his chest Xray we still found some small shade areas.

Light up Marlboro man!

Answer 2

Two a week will kill you in about 250 years. I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 3

Smoking damage is cumulative. You simply add up all the cigarettes that you smoke, and you can add in 1 cigarette for every hour of exposure to second hand smoke, too. Cumulative cigarette smoking is measured in pack-years. One pack of cigarettes a day for one year equals one pack-year. Serious problems such as decreased lung function, heart disease, bad blood flow, and cancer risk for lung and bladder cancer and others, those problems begin climbing rapidly at around 10 pack-years, and reach very dangerous levels at around 20 pack-years. Much of the damage is reversible up to 10 pack-years if you stop, but after 10 pack-years, much of the damage is irreversible.

So just do the math, convert your current exposure to pack-years, and  you can estimate your risk. Just remember that these are general numbers, some people will have serious problems at 5 pack-years, and others reach 25 pack-years without problems.  

Answer 4

Do you know how poluted our air is?

just imagine it this way:

100 million cars on the road.

50 million people smoking.

5 million factories running.

3 million dangerous household product fumes being exposed to the air.

Every day.Chances are non smokers will get lung cancer too.

Social smoking isn't the best..and you shouldn't do it..but it's better then smoking everyday.

Answer 5

It takes about 10 pack years of smoking to contract lung cancer. There's no way you can get to that with two cigarettes a week. In practice, your risk of lung cancer isn't zero even if you don't smoke -- you're exposed to second hand smoke, radon, pollution from coal plants and diesel exhaust, etc. -- so there's a small chance that even those two cigarettes could push you over the edge. But the risk of that is miniscule. I wouldn't worry about it.