BS”D
I smoked pipes for 18 years. I started during finals week of my last year of college, because I needed an alternative to eating while studying.
I stopped because I felt I was at risk for addiction because I was smoking stronger and stronger tobacco, and the nicotine is absorbed. However, I was able to quit completely, and in fact I started again a while after I quit but sold my new pipes a month after I started again and have never smoked a pipe again since then. I did smoke cigars on and off after giving up pipes, but it was more off than on and I had my last cigar over two years ago.
My dentist in the US (a well known frum dentist in Brooklyn who has written articles about early detection of oral yenne machla), told me never to keep the pipe in one place in my mouth if I absolutely had to smoke. Another dentist abroad, who had practiced in Germany where pipe smoking and oral yenne machla are more common, told me that once a day, which was about how much I smoked, would never have an effect.
The only strange persisting effect I seem to have from all the years of smoking is that my sense of taste is slightly “off”. All that means is I use a lot of mustard, chrein and charif :).
Best place to learn about pipes was alt.smokers.pipes on Usenet. I am not sure how active it is today. The brand of pipe I started with was called Aldo Velani; not high priced at all. When I stopped I had over 100 pipes, some quite valuable but most of which I purchased on Ebay or from collectors at a very steep discount.
Some insurance companies do consider pipe smokers as non-smokers.