Alright, I realize I may be treading on thin ice with this subject. Hookah today is the Mary Jane of the sixties and seventies. Though still a very popular drug, Marijuana is not a commonly used now as it was in the times of let just say The Beatles. (Oh yes, John Paul George and Ringo...we all know you were sky high...we loved you anyway) Today marijuana is widely shunned in the public eye and there are clubs set up to inspire the illegalization of this drug even for medicinal uses. Today the legal drug of choice: HOOKAH.
Many of my friends hookah, many of my coworkers hookah, and for a period of time...I used to hookah. The only drug I know of that the name of which can be used as a descriptive noun and an all-telling verb (hey..it’s what you do right?) Hookah is a simple mixture of flavored tobacco and molasses. (Don’t quote me on that...but im pretty sure that’s it)
In regards to the health issues...The big question is "Is hookah bad for you? Is it as bad as smoking cigarettes?" So here’s some facts in my own words from various studies and websites.
1. (Well known fact) Inhaling smoke, whether second-hand or first, is dangerous. It doesn’t matter where the smoke comes from or the substance being smoked.
2. The water in the hookah DOES NOT "clean" the smoke.
3. Hookah smoke contains toxic compounds including carbon monoxide.
4. Hookahs and hookah smoke contain tobacco specific nitroamines that are cancer causing.
5. MANY studies show that contrary to popular belief the levels of compounds coming through the hookah are AT LEAST as high IF NOT HIGHER than cigarette smoke.
6. Sharing the mouthpiece (commonly known to many hookah smokers as a "condom") has a risk of infection including HERPES
7. Chemicals found in the hookah that are at a HIGHER level than cigarettes include but are not limited to: Tar, PAH, Chrysene (tumor initiator), Phenanthrene (co-carcinogen).
8. Smoking hookah has been linked to cancer of the gums (much like chewing tobacco) and gum disease.
9. Coals create a health risk as well. Breathing in the combination of the coals compounds adds to and possibly increases health risk of hookah smokers.
10. Several types of cancer have been linked to hookah smoking.
11. Hookah can become addictive, and does produce nicotine as well as a number of other toxins such as carbon monoxide, tar, and myriad carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
12. Hookah smoke contains higher quantities of toxic metals like arsenic, nickel, cobalt, chromium, lead, and cadmium, as compared with cigarette smoke.
13. QUOTED:
In a carefully designed recent study, researchers Shihadeh and Saleh used a smoking machine that replicated the puffing mechanics derived from precise measurements of 52 hookah smokers in Lebanon.Shihadeh and Saleh carried out stringently controlled quantitative chemical analyses of hookah smoke. They found that hookah smoke produced nearly two orders of magnitude greater amount of "tar" from a
single smoking session than that produced from a single cigarette. Simply put, hookah smoke produces nearly 100 times more "tar" than cigarette smoke, for each gram of the respective tobaccos
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:QX9NqyQp3AQJ:www.wesleyan.edu/weswell/atoz_info/drugs/The%2520latest%2520on%2520Hookahs.pdf+Hookah+Facts&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=26&ie=UTF-8
14. QUOTED:
Hookah smoking is an efficient nicotine delivery system. After a 45- minute hookah smoking session, the concentrations of nicotine and its longer-lived metabolic product,cotinine, become significantly elevated in saliva, plasma, and urine. Comparison
urinary levels of cotinine between hookah smokers and cigarette smokers suggests that in a single hookah smoking session using 20 grams of hookah tobacco, the hookah smoker is exposed to several-fold greater quantities of the addictive stimulant nicotine for up to 45 to 60 minutes. That is equivalent to chain-smoking 15 cigarettes. A cross sectional study on hookah smokers from 112 restaurants and cafes in Aleppo, Syria, reported that 96% of weekly hookah smokers and 50% of daily hookah smokers did not smoke cigarettes. This survey found that 91% of weekly hookah smokers and 51% of daily hookah smokers did not have the will to quit, which highlights the addictive nature of hookah smoking among myriad factors.
Same place
That’s all the facts I’ll go over...but as you can see...there are a TON!
Now for those of you who don’t know what hookah is. Hookah is becoming much more widely known in the US but has been dated back to the 16th century to the middle eastern countries, ie India, Iran, etc. Hookah is tobacco with flavor and molasses or honey mixed together and put into a bowl. The bowl is set on top of a long hollow shaft which is put onto a clay or glass chamber of water. Coals are set on top of the bowl which is covered with tin foil and the smoke travels down the hollow shaft into the water-filled chamber, and out of a hose which the smoker is breathing the smoke in from. It is most commonly a social event. Usually a hookah is shared by two or three people. Hookah smokers smoke anywhere from one bowl or one-two hours to many bowls and all night. The increased time means increased toxins and increased *crap* entering your body. Because it is social and shared, the likelihood of getting sick or spreading disease or infection is highly increased. In the US there are more than 300 hookah bars, and over 50 in California alone. Bars are located mainly in college areas and areas with a high amount of people of Arabic descent. When asked if many common hookah smokers could stop, more often than not they reply yes, but when asked to do so for study reasons, many could not quit as easily as they thought they would and could.
Now...am I bashing hookah smoking? No, that would make me a HUGE hypocrite. I have smoked hookah in the past and for reasons of my own decided to quit. Though I said I could quit it no problem, I did find myself thinking about it or taking "one more hit for old times sake with the friends" a couple of times. (Keep in mind, I was not a heavy hookah smoker, I do not and have not used other forms of tobacco, and do not easily get substance addiction) I am simply presenting the facts. It is up for you to decide...Hookah smoking. Good, bad, neither? Information is information, and as someone on here quoted underdog..."knowing is half the battle"
Sorry.. for that last line it is "Smoking hookah ISN'T even as bad as one drag from a cigarrette"
I am an avid hookah smoker. I smoke when I am with friends, and I am with friends every day, on average I say I smoke hookah every other day. I can also tell you that I am not the richest person, so I do have bills to pay, so I do have times where I am out of shisha/coals and I can't smoke so I will go weeks without smoking, I have in fact gone over a month without smoking at one point :(. I smoke when I have it, and I don't crave it when I don't get it. Being addicted to hookah is the same as being addicted to gambling/sex/lying/ANYTHING. If you have an addictive personality you WILL get addicted. I can tell you in all honesty that I have never had cravings for hookah in my life.
As for the amount of tar in hookah. It all comes down to what shisha you buy. I have smoked 20+ diff brands of shisha and the most amount of tar I have seen labeled on the box was 5% tar (Almost all have 0%). And for nicotine you will find the same thing on every box "0.5% nicotine" and why is this? Is it because those dirty shisha companys are trying to get you addicted? Ha 0.5% nicotine will NOT get you addicted, you have a better shot at getting addicted to caffine from a can of mtn dew than getting addicted to nicotine from shisha. The reason for that 0.5% is because shisha IS tabacoo and tabacoo has nicotine in it naturally as a defense against animals so that it wont be eaten.
FACT:Hookah does have carbon menoxide in it... TO AN EXTENT. I can't stress this enoug to EVERYONE I smoke with.. the carbon menoxide is in the quick light coals.You can also slightly taste those icky quick light coals too. The best hookah you will ever smoke will be with an all natural coal, kinda like COCO NARA coals made from 100% compressed coconut shells. You wont taste it, and it is all natural and better for you. again IF YOU WANT TO AVOID ANY CARBON MENOXIDE GET AN ALL NATURAL COAL! THEY ARE CHEAPER ANYWAYS!.
Alternatives? Well if you want to avoid tobacoo all together you can get herbal shisha, WARNING:It will taste like shit.. the best one I have tried though (and it is decent) is a brand called "BLACK". For the smoothest healthiest experience please CLEAN your hookah after every use, a clean hookah IS a happy hookah after all.
And finally.... I am not a tobaccoo supporter at all. I have NEVER touched a cigarette in my life and I am a huge supporter of TRUTH company. If shisha was made with something besides tobacoo and still tasted just as tasty I would go with that... but for now I will deal. Something I have learned from researching is, "TOBACCOO IS THE LEAST DEADLIEST THING IN A CIGARETTE"
These facts are very interesting and eye opening. But something does need to be taken into effect. The machine used to smoke the cigarette and hookah is designed to ONE person smoking, I have NEVER smoked by myself and I guess after reading this, I wouldn't recomend it. A fact that I heard that is rediculous is "One session of hookah is equivilent to one pack of cigarettes" and that was a scientific study. The only thing they can compare that too, it the amount of tobaccoo used in the bowl. I will give that one to the scientists but keep in mind "TOBACCOO IS THE LEAST DEADLIEST THING IN A CIGARETTE" so when you look at it that way, it's even as bad as one DRAG from a cigarette.
First of all, it's Carbon MONOxide. Mono as in one, because there's only one oxygen atom attached to the carbon,instead of two (as in carbon dioxide).
Secondly, carbon monoxide is formed whenever you burn something. Burning something all natural, or purified or whatever will not eliminate carbon monoxide from being produced, and if that's what the packages are telling you, they are lying to you.
As far as tobacco being the worst thing in cigarettes, have you really done your research? There are over 500 chemicals in cigarettes, including ammonia, benzaldehyde (and countless other aldehydes... you may be more familiar with the very basic formaldehyde), and urea. Tobacco is not the most dangerous of them, trust me.
~C
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after reading all of theses comments, i must say WOW. how immature can you get? i wonder how many of you that are defending any form of tobacco actually care about life preservation? how many of you are pro-life or pro-choice?? if ur pro-life, then you, my friend, are stupid. if you are pro-choice, you should hope that people make the right decision. smoking is not the thing to do. if anything that invades ur body can kill you, then why do you do it? i must say thank you to the person who wrote this blog. thank you for proving that its not healthy to smoke and it is in fact addicting. how many of you who smoke would scream and cry if a murderer was in your house coming to kill YOU?? well you might as well think of yourself as that murderer. because you are killing yourself. would you commit suicide? what do you think of those who do commit suicide? would you think of them as stupid? well then SO ARE YOU. if you're goin to protect something, especially any form of smoke. you had better think of the abilities it has generated just to kill you. think twice before getting upset with those who actually care about you and want you to live your life to the end like you should be if you didnt smoke at all. but if you want to smoke, dont let me stop you. i could honestly care less if thats the choice you chose to make. pro-choice(but please make the right one)
But we did not put tobacco mixed with honey or molases in them.
We filled them with either pot or when it was available, the more traditional hashish.
About the same thing as a bong although perhaps not quite so intense because you generally take a smaller hit. Not quite so likely to get tipped over and make a stinky mess either.
people really blow this out of proportion. it's like cigarettes at all, because people don't smoke these all day everyday. i consider myself a regular user at once or twice a week for about 30 minute sessions each. it may have a lot of stuff in it, but it's not cigarettes because unless you're really addicted to it, you probably won't smoke it any more than a few times a week, where as in one day you can smoke any number of cigarettes. plus the hookah is an ancient middle eastern tradition it's been around for a real long time so don't just rip on it. in fact, i just bought a new hookah today and plan on smoking it this weekend. the main point is , hookah is popular but it's really not intended for everyday use.
Although people don't do hookah daily, the facts state that one session is compared to ONE cigarette. Meaning if you do two sessions a week and don't smoke, then you're smoking 2 cigarettes a week. Even that is dangerous. Native Americans had the peace pipe, Middle easterners can keep the hookah. Don't use cultural traditions as an excuse for it being safe unless you have facts.
wow.. seriously?? one cigarette? people smoke a cigarette in like minutes! my friends who smoke, smoke packs a day! you have to realize that when people do experiments comparing hookah to cigarettes, the machine smokes the product until it is completely out. a person does not smoke a hookah alone like you stated. they hit it then pass. you are not getting all the amounts of the "*crap*" because you are not smoking it alone and they are getting even less of the effects if there is a lot of people. my uncle is dying because of cigarettes, the hold cigarettes have on a person is so much greater than hookah. i hookah every other week maybe then forget about it for months at times. it is no where near as addictive as cigarettes... and i have a question... how does shisha(what you put in the hookah) have 100 times more tar when on the label it says 0 % tar???
"Though still a very popular drug, Marijuana is not a commonly used now as it was in the times of let just say The Beatles."
This just isn't true.
Marijuana is by far the most commonly used illicit drug in this country today. By comparison, in 1979 a total of 27.9% of the population had tried the drug, but in 2004 a total of 40.2% of the population had given it a try.
Trends in Marijuana Use (1979 - 2004)
http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/nsduh/marijuana.htm
"It is well established from national survey data that marijuana initiation generally occurs among youth in their mid-to-late teens and that regular use persists into the early twenties, and then steadily declines through the mid-to-late twenties and into the thirties."
"Even though only a small proportion of marijuana users adopt patterns of use that pose health risks, the growing prevalence of regular marijuana users suggests that the actual number of problem users is on the rise. Evidence showing trends in dependence rates confirm this suspicion. And, the cost of treating the dependent population is not nearly as low as is frequently presumed."
http://www.nber.org/reporter/winter05/pacula.html
Just keeping things accurate.
percivale
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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny..." ~ Isaac Asimov
from personal experience, i have noticed that hookah actually isnt that bad for you, its actualy quite better for you than other tobacco products. maybe you guys should actually try it before you comment on it and look like complete idiots.
You said "from personal experience"? ***! I'm sure a lot of smokers would tell you that "from personal experience" smoking isn't that bad because they haven't died yet. ***. Are you saying that from personal experience you've had your lungs checked for the amount of tar in them? Or are you just waiting til you get cancer to retract this post? Because if not...***.
edited by sawaboof for TOS Violations. 11.14.2008
Hookah smoke is much less harsh than cigarettes, and certainly not as disgusting as chewing tobacco, however, simple scientific observation marks hookah smoke as containing both nicotine and carcinogens.
Your singular, personal and likely relatively short experience, and ignorant grasp at superior experience holds little weight.
What knowledge do you bring the table of this discussion besides limited, subjective observation skewed so that you may enjoy your chosen recreation without guilt? You have brought no facts, no figures, and only the barest hint at personal experience, excuse if I don't immediately fawn over your vast intellectual nugget here.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
Are you kidding me? Tobacco is all around nasty, still has nicotine and produces carbon monoxide and other carcinogens, not to mention burning molasses probably gives a higher carbon dioxide level. Kids, don't try this at home.... or campus. your doing more harm to yourself than if you just sit down and smoke some good old Mary Jane. Studies prove.... well read more of my blogs. You'll see
-Your Bud and mine
Hookah is definitely popular at my college. I've never done it myself, but these are itneresting facts I never knew.
Yeah....hookah is all around me. It's slightly annoying because i have decided to quit but people still hella pressure me to do it or will sit there and smoke into my face..i dont care that they do it, but into my face? how rude...
I had wondered about a lot of this stuff myself, but wasn't really sure where to look. My general idea was to cut risk by not smoking hookah very often. Anyway thanks for the facts.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Memento mori, mahalo.
Not a problem. I have a ton of friends that still hookah (and many of them do it QUITE a lot...)At first I thought I knew a lot about the subject, but then I started researching. Boy was I wrong. And I suspect most hookah smokers are. Like many habitual things, the people doing it dont like to see the bad, but facts presented...it's obviously not something good to do on a regular basis. Any questions let me know..otherwise I'll keep posting about whatever comes to mind.