Which Cigarette is Safest?

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LoneRanger

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Before you hit me in the face for the subj line, I know there is NO SAFE CIGARETTE. But. I know someone who needs to QUIT SMOKING and I think if they could transition to a low nicotine or "light" cigarette to taper off nicotine BEFORE going ALL IN with a nicotine patch "quit kit" type of thing, it might help.

So is there a "light" cigarette that has lower or lowest nicotine content ?

And it's my son. He started smoking in the military and never has quit. He knows he needs to. I'd love to be able to point him towards a low nic cigarette to get him started weaning off the stuff.
 
Light generally refers to the tar content not nicotine, as far as I know all military branches offer smoking cessation classes and treatment free of charge. I know the Navy does everywhere I've ever been stationed. I'd recommend he look into that, medication and tapering nicotine substitute is generally successful, but as a former user there is no such thing as quitting just a long time since your last one, it's an ongoing battle and he has to know what triggers to avoid to prevent relapse.
 
Having taken care of many patients who smoke, a huge component is in their heads. Yes nicotine is addictive but a lot of is is mental addiction. Replacing one addiction with another does not help, its that thinking that is the problem. Or the " But i've been smoking for XXX number of years" Giving themselves permission not to quite.

He will have to make a decision to save his life. I hope a stent or bypass is not what is needed to do that.

When i was younger i did dip snuff, a nasty habit. After being around patients with out a tongue or with surgically altered lips, I simple said yea, thats not going to be me, and i never touch tobacco afterwards.

Unless he arrives at that mindset, i'm afraid there is not much else you can do. If you push him too hard, he will smoke and continue for spite.

Good Luck.
 
I quit cold turkey over 40 years ago. Not everyone can do that , so he might talk with his doctor for his or her recommendation. I don't think substituting one type of cigarette for another will accomplish anything.
 
It takes a lot of will power. He can try peppermint tooth picks and drinking a lot of water. Have him run two miles hard as he can. If he isn't coughing up phelm and his face red he isn't running hard enough.

When he can't catch his breath he will understand the need to quit and then he will have the motivation to quit.
 
This is like asking which cancer is the best. My wife and I both quit about 16 years ago when we found out we were having a child. Both cold turkey, no aides, his life was our motivation. I've got friends from work who have quit and gone back several times, using patches and the like. You need to want to quit; you need to NEED to quit. It has to be a conscious decision. It isn't going to be easy, but neither is dying from cancer and that's the alternative.
 
Go to a hospital and ask if you can see the pulmonary unit. I bet there are lots of nurses that would gladly give him a tour.

Regardless of opinions, vaping might be healthier in the long run. Your still addicted, but your not inhaling tar and countless chemicals into your lungs.

My younger sister vapes a JUUL, mango flavor. Her favorite light cigs are Camel Silvers.
She is a barber at Great Clips and she got a complaint from a customer that her fingers smelled like smoke and disgusted him.
So she switched to vaping.

She tried the Blu ECIG which didn't work for her.
 
I guess quitting is really hard for some. I used to smoke about a pack a day, but I am a real tightwad, and when it got to where It cost a dollar a pack to buy them, I said no more, and when I ran out I just refused to buy any more. I missed it for a while, but the cravings slowly went away, and now many years later you couldn't give me a cigarette.
 
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
Before you hit me in the face for the subj line, I know there is NO SAFE CIGARETTE. But. I know someone who needs to QUIT SMOKING and I think if they could transition to a low nicotine or "light" cigarette to taper off nicotine BEFORE going ALL IN with a nicotine patch "quit kit" type of thing, it might help.

So is there a "light" cigarette that has lower or lowest nicotine content ?

And it's my son. He started smoking in the military and never has quit. He knows he needs to. I'd love to be able to point him towards a low nic cigarette to get him started weaning off the stuff.

Carlton menthol is the lowest tar and nicotine cig. 1mg tar 0.1 nicotine. However they are sometimes very hard to find. I had to go to a Native American smoke shop here in the Phoenix area to buy them.Here's a secret about low tar and nicotine cigs. It's all in the filter which has tiny holes in them to reduce the amount of smoke that reaches your mouth and lungs. If you take a push pin and make holes in the filter of pretty much any cig you achieve the same results. And yes I know doing this is no substitute for quitting. Good luck to your son.
 
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IIRC, I recall reading somewhere that one drawback of low tar cigs was that the user would take longer/deeper drags in order to get the "hit" that they used to get on full flavor (or more flavor) cigs. And possibly simply make up for loss of nicotine by smoking more cigs.

I think the Carlton's is a decent idea, but only if he's addicted to the action of smoking.

Good luck. I think his best bet is cold turkey, or darn near that.
 
Years and years ago there was an article in New Scientist that was suggesting roll your own filterless were the safest...but again, the analogies that others have posted are correct...

The reason was that particles were typically large, and it didn't take a lot of "suck" to draw the smoke through the filter. The filtered, on the other hand had smaller particles (think of the current issues with PM2.5s, some of which can enter the bloodstream), and the filter made the smoker draw harder, which expanded the alveoli allowing the particles deeper in the matrix...the heavier particles got more "collected" by the less open alveoli sacks.

They reckoned that my childhood memories of my grandparents hacking up gobs of blackness in the mornings expelled a lot of what was collected during the previous day.

I found the results that they demonstrated interesting, and potentially a set of unintended consequences from doing what is instinctively the right thing.

BTW, Grandad dies of emphysema
 
Kept trying to quit by telling myself to not buy the next carton then buying mentholated to medicate the growing sore throat, finally, threw away a half pack and never smoked again.
 
I quit several years ago, Cold Turkey.....I had to quit drinking beer for a several months as it caused the worst cravings.

He has no idea how much better he will feel after about 6 months, I wish I never picked-up the habit in the first place....Can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke now!
 
Which cigarette is the safest? The unlit ones. The best thing anyone can do is quit. I haven't had a cigarette in 16 years. I now hate the smell of them. I quit cold turkey. It wasn't by choice. I had an extended hospital stay and didn't have access to cigarettes. When I got out, I no longer had any desire to smoke. The craving was gone.
 
It's late and I only glanced at the posts....so if anyone said this already.....

Let's assume he knows how to measure.

Get stage cigarettes. they're made of herbs (camomile etc.). Also get a nicotine containing vape.

Then he sucks on a vape for the nicotine he's addicted to and can chase it with the "harmless" smoke.

If he measures the nicotine dosage he has an empirical handle on it.

If he feels it's too much to do then tell him to man up like others have.

If he rejects the idea outright and thinks I'm a fool for suggesting something so outlandish then step in and remind him you were trying to brainstorm HIS problem and 99 bad ideas are worth listening to if you get one good one.

That's what brainstorming is.

See if NYQUITS commercial of a guy coughing his lungs out is on YouTube somewhere. It's great...."You can suffer every minute of every day for the rest of your life".
 
Problem with low nicotine cigarette is people smoke MORE. I recommend the Tar Bar that is a external plastic that goes on the butt. You get to see what it captures. Drinking lots of water helps cravings as well as a USP certified B12 and multivitamin. My dad did allowance.So many a day and non on Sundays. Then it was none on weekends. Now he's at a pack a week.
 
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