The great majority of tobacco consumption in Australia occurs in the form of cigarette smoking. A small percentage of Australians (4% of men and none of the surveyed women) smoked pipes or cigars alone in 1992(29) (see also Chapter 2, Section 4).
Pipe and cigar smokers have higher death rates for smoking related diseases than non-smokers, but for most disease entities their rates are not nearly as high as those of cigarette smokers. The probable reason for this is that pipe and cigar smokers tend not to inhale the smoke into their lungs: instead, nicotine is absorbed through the mucous membranes lining the mouth.(16) Therefore pipe and cigar smokers experience a risk for laryngeal, oral and oesophageal cancer similar to that of cigarette smokers, but a lesser degree of risk for lung cancer.(3)
Pipe and cigar smokers experience higher mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than do non-smokers, but not as high a rate as do cigarette smokers. Development of COPD is positively related to depth and frequency of inhalation of smoke.(38) Smokers who use only pipes or cigars do not appear to experience substantially greater risks of cardiovascular disease than non-smokers.(13)