For 15 years, thousands of fans inside Bryant-Denny and Neyland Stadiums have fired up victory cigars after Alabama beats Tennessee, not to mention the other thousands lighting up all over the world who couldn’t indulge in the rivalry’s tradition in person.

That’s 15 straight years — consecutive. The streak is impressive enough, but it means the fans who love partaking in the celebratory, post-game puff have had to save a few bucks for the stogies and put their lungs through more than they probably anticipated when Nick Saban took over as Crimson Tide head coach. While Bama remains a big favorite heading into Knoxville this week, a talented top 10-ranked Tennessee team could win for the first time since 2006, giving Tide fans a break from the smoke.

Most folks do not inhale while smoking cigars, but some do, and a stadium at capacity with 100,000 fans breathing it all in secondhand each year made us wonder: After nearly two decades of whipping Tennessee and firing up to rub it in, does one cigar per year every year pose any sort of long-term health risk for the fans who do it?

We asked Dr. Jenna Boyd Carpenter, a pulmonologist and intensive care doctor in Guntersville.

Long-term health risks?

“That topic is one of debate,” she said. “You do get these questions about, ‘What if I am only an occasional cigar or cigarette smoker?’ That falls into a little bit of a gray zone. When we look at the data from the CDC, there is not much research or data out there about rare or occasional cigar smokers…about this occasional use, long-term effects or health consequences from that.”

Carpenter said one large cigar can contain about as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, a fact she says often surprises her patients. “As we always say, complete cessation from tobacco is certainly what any pulmonologist like myself or your physician would recommend,” she said. “We certainly don’t promote tobacco use. But specifically to answer that question, the occasional use, there’s just not as much out there saying how does this affect my health long-term.

“People might say, ‘Don’t be a downer on my tradition!’ A lot of people look at that and say this is something that’s been going on for years, not readily wanting to give that tradition up,” she said before stressing, “Nicotine is addictive. Even occasional cigar use could potentially put you at risk for developing a nicotine addiction. If you sustain from that completely, you wouldn’t have that risk.”

The CDC says that, historically, cigar smoking in the United States has been a behavior of older men, but “the industry’s increased marketing of these products to targeted groups increased the prevalence of use among adolescents.” The website lists the following health risks associated with cigar smoking:

• Regularly smoking cigars is associated with an increased risk for cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx (voice box), and oral cavity (lip, tongue, mouth, throat).
• Cigar smoking is linked to gum disease and tooth loss.
• Heavy cigar smoking and inhaling cigar smoke deeply may increase risk for developing coronary heart disease.
• Heavy cigar smoking increases the risk for lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Addicted after one cigar?

But what if it’s a one-time deal? Is there really a risk of developing an addiction to nicotine or cigars if you only smoke one a year, especially after another Bama beatdown of the Vols?

“It’s like anything else with addictive properties,” Carpenter said. “You have to be cautious of anything with a drug in it, such as nicotine. Each person has to weigh their own decision and know if they have a tendency for addictive characteristic. Anything that you do with your body that has potential for an addiction, you have to be aware of that. Just one time a year, that does not qualify as an addiction.”

But she said for anyone with a predisposition for asthmatic bronchitis, even a one-time use of a cigar could cause an asthma attack in patients with other lung conditions, could cause some issues. “These are all things to keep in mind, for them to make the best decision depending on what their underlying health is.”

Inhalation

And yes, with cigar smoke, typically people do not inhale it deeply into their lungs. Carpenter said it tends to stay more in the upper oral cavity, within the mouth. “The thing to be aware of with that is increased risk of oral and mouth cancers, particularly with cigar use,” she said. “We all know about the lung cancer risk. That is not something that at this point is a secret. Tobacco users know this.”

So what about the secondhand inhalation? Bryany-Denny and Neyland Stadiums literally go up in smoke when the clock hits zero, no matter who wins? In fact, after a 15-year draught, if Tennessee pulls off the upset, we might see a mushroom cloud of cigar smoke over Knoxville. So even fans who do not wish to smoke a cigar — no matter how pleased with the win — will breathe it in, including children.

“In isolated cases, really the only major issue I can think of is that short-term exposure,” Carpenter said. “You have to think about children exposed to that environment. You do have other patients that are exposed with respiratory issues. I have some asthma patients I see in clinic, and one of their triggers for having an asthma attack or sometimes to the point that they have to use an emergency inhaler, is cigarette smoke. If they are around that or exposed to that, that can really set them off. For the acute effects, those are the things worth mentioning, the impact that it could have on the surrounding people around you depending on what their health conditions may be, particularly with younger people around.”

‘Just be aware’

Carpenter, a Mississippi State fan and a true third-party, understands cigars are deeply rooted in rivalry tradition. She repeated she hasn’t seen enough data to confirm major long-term risk of a once-a-year celebratory cigar, but she warns of the other dangers people should consider. “The main thing I want people to think about is the long-term effect from secondhand exposure and the effects of long-term smoking, to just be aware,” she said. “Know that nicotine is addictive. You just have to weigh all of that and take all that into consideration.

“Secondhand smoke exposure can be a big deal chronically over a long period of time. I’ve got patients I see in clinic that never smoked a day in their life, but I follow them for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) — that causes issues with bronchitis, cough, shortness of breath, particularly when they’re exerting themselves. That primarily is from secondhand smoke from a spouse or a family from long-term, parents that smoked around their kids. Secondhand effects are not as well understood or realized by people, and they don’t think that’s as big of a deal. And it can affect you later in life if you were exposed to it growing up as a child.”

Learn more about the health risks caused by smoking cigars on the CDC website.