As a smoker who is constantly in the 'I'm quitting..' phase, is there a reason that cigarettes are so bad? Is the burning of tobacco itself lethal or are the additives the principal killers?
If we had evolved to tolerate doing this to ourselves, then we wouldn't be arguing about this. IMHO, some people do seem to adapt better to burning things and inhaling them. BUT I'm not going to test that out on myself for 20 years only come out the other side with lung cancer (or worse). It's a crapshoot, really. Your call. Plus, I like the fact my sense of taste and smell works better than it did when I was a smoker.
If the nicotine in tobacco didn't give you the high you feel when smoking, would people still be smoking and getting cancer? Probably not. People like getting high. Take that away and what reason is there to smoke? But I digress...
So, to answer your question, "all of the above". You smoke to get high from the nicotine, but the other shit in the smoke is what your body can't tolerate (generally speaking, as yes I agree there are many instances of people living perfectly normal lives smoking the whole time).
I'd take up smoking e-cigarettes if you feel it's safer to you (long term) than smoking cigarettes.
When I quit last year (no vaping), the first thing I noticed was how incredibly salty restaurant food was. After years of working with essential oils (for soap making and such), my nose leaves much to be desired.
If you do try vaping, try an iTaste variable voltage battery with a dual-coil pro-tank. Also get an e-liquid that's 50/50 between vegetable glycerine (good vapor -- 'clouds') and propylene glycol (throat hit).
This is what I'm using now, and as a result I've lowered my 'analog' intake by half.
I don't touch weed at all. I vape part-time and have found that it helps with the nicotine craving, but man... I love smoking. Reading articles like this push me further and further away from 'analogs', as we say.
Addictions aside, vaping is a better alternative for days when I have meetings and have to work around others.
This youtube video is interesting. I'm not sure how accurate it is. http://youtu.be/k-MRkC5DqFQ
Untrue. "Smokeless tobacco is a major cause of oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, and esophageal cancer."
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/features/snus-tobacco...
E.g., Wikipedia says: Thus far, the evidence specifically implicating snus in pancreatic cancer is only suggestive.[25][26]
Your link say: [Scandinavian] snus users have a significantly higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
That is a contradiction. Wikipedia has references.
And snus, according to both references, is less bad than snuff. Your quote ("Smokeless tobacco") generalizes over the same group.