To worry that 77-year old relative is at risk of cancer

[Orchidacea]

I just found out that a 77-year old relative has taken up cigar smoking. He says he smokes 2-3/month. He quit cigarette smoking 30 years ago.
He has been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, which seems to be getting worse, but he is in good shape physically.
He is extremely stubborn, so will certainly not listen to advice from me about cigars.
I know no one can predict the future, but AIBU to worry that he will now develop cancer from this new cigar-smoking habit?

Bless him, I like his style 😀 chances are he'll die of something else long before the smoking has had a chance to effect his systems.

I plan to go out eating a lot of sponge cake and lemon biscuits 😄

At 92 the drs kept trying to get my grandad to reduce his salt intake and other dietary bits and bobs. At some point you need to just let people enjoy the life they have left!

Another vote for letting him crack on and enjoy.
The only thing I'd worry about was making the house stink and be unpleasant to visit.

Behave! I plan to try heroin when I get to around that age to see what all the fuss was about!

Jokes aside. He’s 77. He’s seen it all and lost a lot of people along the way. Let him enjoy his cigar in peace.

Cancer is a long term risk. Let the man live for the moment.

I'd get your local fire service to do a fire safety check and then let him crack on.

I’d be more worried about him forgetting a cigar and burning the house down tbh.

My mum used to get told off for giving my dying grandad salt because it was bad for him
She used to say he was dying anyway so might as well enjoy his food

Same principal here. He's 77. Let him enjoy whatever life he has left

This. He’s probably not going to live long enough for cigar smoking to give him cancer. And if it’s not the cigars it’ll be something else.

Let him enjoy his end of days. Nothing to do with you.

I remember doctors telling my 80 year old gran, a lifelong smoker, to stop smoking and her laughing and saying no bloody way. She died at 83 and it wasn’t related to smoking in any way.

Is this relative able to think for himself? Use the internet? Then he can make his own decisions. You don’t get the right to control what he does just because it would be difficult if he got ill.

Would this still weigh on your mind if he was still a regular cigarette smoker?

At 77, I think he's more than earned the right to toot on a cigar or two.

Good on him.

DH's sister tried moaning because he gave their 90yo mother a McDonalds. We'd sussed some years earlier that MiL was a little bit too keen on pushing for us to take the DCs there for lunch, and somewhat enthusiastic about the pickles on her burger without admitting that she really rather liked an occasional meal there.

DH pointed out that she got far more nutrition from the burger she ate than the meal that she'd picked at earlier. At 6st, she needed every calorie that appealed to her by that stage. Her terminal long term condition prevailed about a year later.

At 77 he's only 3 years younger than average male life expectancy and it sounds like the decline has begun. The last years can be long and often lack in pleasure. It's a stage to enjoy what you can as long as you can without fretting too much about the future.
No one is immortal.

If he's only just taken it up, i'd say another age related illness or cancer could well get him first.
Cancer is one of most common causes of death, and lots of cancers are exacerbated by smoking. So it would be hard to attribute it to one lifestyle choice as the sole cause. Obviously it's not healthy, but if it gives him pleasure at this stage of his life I'd let him get on with it.
He's unlikely to stop just because you tell him to, and it could simply make him withdraw contact if he thinks he'll get moaned at. Even though you mean well.

I think I'd be more worried about fire risk tbh!

Smoking causes cancer in long term Smokers not new smokers. A couple of cigars a month is not a guarantee he will get cancer all of a sudden.

He could get cancer either way. Live and let live

2-3 a month may not have much affect. It's not like he's smoking two packs a day.

People who develop smoking-related cancers don’t develop them within a few years of taking up the habit. It takes a really long time. Sometimes the cancer doesn’t develop until twenty-odd years after they stopped smoking. People who start smoking as teenagers almost never start dropping dead from lung cancer in their 20s - it takes decades.

Basically, yes, smoking is bad for you, and it might make him wheezy and prone to chest infections etc. But it is extremely unlikely that someone who only starts smoking at 77 has enough years left in them for that smoking to cause cancer.

This is somewhat reminiscent of when my cousin told our grandfather he was eating too much sugar. He said “I’m 89, sweetheart. If I drop dead tomorrow it won’t be because I had Swiss roll and custard for me tea.”

(He actually lived to 94, independently, and refused to eat anything savoury at all for the last three years of his life. When he was actually dying he asked if someone could go and get him some Maltesers.)

We are all "at risk of cancer", because 50% of us will get it.
But at 77 then I think he can do whatever he likes, FFS. Realistically, he is coming to the end of his life, so why not enjoy a simple pleasure while he can? Good for him!

Honestly once you get to 75 you have so few years left to really enjoy yourself before your housebound/fragile/ otherwise vulnerable etc let him eat, drink and be merry.

Regardless every time you eat a burnt BBQ sausage you increase you risk of cancer or ear wafer ham. Worrying about every carcinogen is pretty pointless

This is good advice. Especially if there’s any risk of him smoking in bed - they would be able to provide fire resistant bedding if that’s a risk.

Like other posters, taking up smoking at his age I think it’s unlikely cancer will develop in the timescales. It’s not a healthy habit, but also he’s a grown man he can do what he likes.

It’s mad to worry about the healthiness of food that frail elderly people feel like eating. If a tiny old lady fancies a Maccy Ds then buy her as many as she wants!

At 77 something will happen in the future. No one lives forever and the average life expectancy for a man in the UK is 80.

We will all get cancer eventually if we don’t die of something else first.