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Smoking is a terrible habit. It poses so many health risks for both the smokers and the people around them. When you smoke, within the first few seconds of your first puff, the highly toxic chemicals present in the cigarette start reaching all over your internal organs, including the most vital ones as well. The lungs, the brain, the heart and many other organs. When the chemicals reach the lungs, the toxic chemicals also move into your blood stream, and can cause deadly diseases like cancer, lung infections, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Not just the diseases, smoking also affects how you look, your stamina and can be a cause for embarrassment, socially. Some chain smokers are often observed to take cigarettes either to the loo or to shower, often resulting in the cigarette getting moist or wet. There was a recent news doing rounds on social media that ‘two people suffered lung injuries after smoking wet cigarettes’, is it true and if not, do wet or moist cigarettes actually pose added risks?
What does the study say?
The study titled “THE EFFECT OF CIGARETTE MOISTURE ON FORMATION OF PARTICULATE PHASE OF THE MAINSTREAM TOBACCO SMOKE” was conducted "to evaluate the importance of moisture content on chemical composition of mainstream-particulate phase of smoke from commercial cigarettes. The study involved three cigarettes, identical in all components, except in percentage of tobacco moisture (6.3% -dry, 14.23% -regular and 20.1% -moist cigarettes). The results show significant differences between the formed components of the particulate phase of smoke between cigarettes with different percentages of humidity.” It suggested that the more a cigarette is moist, the more tar it is likely to retain and the more puffs per cigarette, consolidating the notion that wet cigarettes pose a considerable amount of added risk as compared to dry cigarettes. The moisture also makes the combustion harder, taking a toll on lungs and adding the risk of severe pulmonary diseases.
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Two People Suffer Lung Injuries after Smoking ‘Wet’ Cigarettes
The news, although technically true, does not mean cigarettes that absorb water or moisture cause lung injuries. The term ‘wet’ here was taken out of context. Wet cigarettes is also used to describe Marijuana cigarettes dipped into or laced with other substances, typically formaldehyde, phencyclidine, or both. Smoking these laced cigarettes can instead cause lung injuries as seen in the reported case of the two people. In both the patients who were described as ‘young adults’, the doctors said, “progressive hypoxemic respiratory failure necessitated rescue therapy with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. After lengthy hospitalizations, both patients recovered with only mild pulmonary function abnormalities.” This is not to say smoking moist cigarettes cannot cause lung injuries, they pose the risk of a lung injury as much as a normal cigarette does.
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Is smoking wet or moist cigarettes more dangerous?
The short answer would be a Yes. To understand why, we need to understand the composition of a cigarette. It is composed of various materials, but primarily, there are two substances: tobacco and paper, wrapped around the tobacco. When cigarettes get wet, their composition changes considerably. The added moisture changes the chemical balance of the tobacco and affects how it is burned. A study done to understand the difference moisture makes on a cigarette proves that the wetness makes the cigarette retain more Tar and significantly increase the number of puffs per cigarette.
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Conclusion
Although, smoking should be discouraged in its all forms, according to the researchers, it is more pertinent to make sure you do not smoke them wet. If you spill water on your cigarettes, it is advisable to dry them out before smoking or not smoke them at all.