That's the bad news. The good news is that, at any age, quitting smoking dramatically reduces a person's risk of getting lung cancer. After all, most cigar smokers don't inhale. Even if you're not smoking yourself, in a way you might as well be, because the smoke is going into your lungs, too. I know that cigarette and cigar smoke can cause disease in smokers.
Children are particularly at risk from the effects of passive smoke.
Despite this, however, passive smoke appears overall to have less harmful effects than directly inhaled smoke. Medical experts consider pipe and cigar smoke just as potentially harmful as cigarette smoke. What's wrong is that cigarette smoking isn't just bad for your health, it's also addictive. Even people who have smoked as few as 100 cigarettes report that they can't quit smoking. Remember, the happy, carefree young people you see in cigarette advertisements more closely resemble people who don't smoke.