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"
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