Recently I have heard a lot about hookah smoking. What is the hype really all about? Today you may see a “hookah bar” or be invited to a “hookah party” since this phenomenon is becoming quite popular. But before you say yes to an invite, know what you will be walking into. What you know about hookah may be false or misleading. Perhaps it isn’t as safe as you’ve been led to believe. Be informed about what you put into your body so you’ll have no regrets later on.
Before we discuss the safety surround smoking a hookah we need to know what goes into the process of smoking hookah tobacco. When using a hookah, hookah tobacco (also known as shisha) is heated to a high temperature in a hookah by using lit coals. This type of tobacco comes in many fruitlike flavors and when heated emits an extremely pleasant and distinct aroma. The coals of a hookah rest on a metal mesh or perforated aluminum foil layer. This layer covers a clay or metal bowl that contains the shisha (some may place the coals directly on the tobacco). The user inhales through a hose, and this causes air to rush into the hookah through the head where the hookah tobacco is lit. The coals heat up, heating the shisha, and smoke is produced. This smoke enters the body of the hookah and is pulled into a glass or metal receptacle of water that is attached to the bottom of the device. The water filters and cools the smoke. The cooled smoke is pulled out through the water, bubbling up into the top of a smoke chamber. The user then inhales this smoke through a hose that is connected to that chamber. The hookah’s method of filtration filters out partial amounts of tar and nicotine from the tobacco.
So is this smoking method safe? Regular tobacco cigarettes are known to cause serious health problems and you should know that smoking hookah tobacco is no safer. It is in fact worse for the user. Many believe that the water in the hookah filters out all of the “bad stuff,” but this simply isn’t true. Even after passing through water, the smoke produced still contains high levels of toxic compounds like carbon monoxide, heavy metals and carcinogens. It also exposes the user to significant levels of nicotine. Recent studies indicate that hookah smokers inhale more nicotine than cigarette smokers because of the amount of smoke that is being inhaled. A typical one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the user to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from smoking a single cigarette. Several types of cancer and gum disease have been linked to hookah smoking. Doctors and public health officials are concerned with this new smoking trend and you should be too.
It should be said that there are safer alternatives when using a hookah. If you replace the shisha molasses with herbal substitutes you are making a healthier choice. These substitutes do not contain the addictive agents and contain little to no tar. The hookah itself is not the problem. It is the substances you “smoke” that are harmful. If you must become involved in the “hookah scene,” use substances that contain no nicotine and no tar so that you don’t end up unhealthy and addicted.
