Daniela,
I decided to research this because I think there is a difference. My dad didn't smoke but every once in awhile he would have a cigar. He might have one after dinner when friends were over, after a good hunt, etc. The old 'guys going to the smoking lounge' thing, akin to today's man-cave.
I found there are two big differences between cigars and cigarettes. Yes the nicotine in cigars is actually more addictive than in cigarettes (one cigar has more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes), but tobacco companies found that a lot of the nicotine in a cigarette wasn't released when burned, but rather remained chemically bound within the tobacco leaf so they began a new way to make cigarettes. In order to have a cigarette release more nicotine they added tobacco extract which is applied to reconstituted tobacco. Reconstituted tobacco is a sheet of paper product which is made from a pulp of mashed tobacco stems and other parts of the tobacco leaf that would otherwise go to waste (and probably the crap they swept off the floor of the manufacturing plant), doubling the nicotine content. The reconstituted tobacco sheet is soaked in as many as 4,000 chemicals, freeze dried, and then shredded. As many ways as tobacco companies can think of, they have or will try to increase nicotine to cigarettes to keep us hooked. They also add nicotine to the “dip casing”, the flavor, the paper, the filter tip...
Since cigars are made with real (non-reconstituted) tobacco they usually contain a better quality of tobacco leaves without as many of the chemicals and are rolled in tobacco leaves instead of paper. Cigar smoke is not usually inhaled, only drawn in the mouth for flavor, maybe as far as the throat, and blown out slowly. Besides, cigars are even less socially acceptable than cigarettes, they take longer to smoke, and the target buyers DON'T include women. So although technically they contain more nicotine than cigarettes (in their non-treated form), they aren't even a runner up in addiction level.
I think I just found 4,000 more reasons to keep quit from the evil nico-demon.
Julie
49 precious days gained.
