People, especially young people don’t generally seem to understand just how dangerous hookah (hubbly bubbly) smoking is. They falsely believe it’s less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
What is a hookah?
A hookah, also known as a water pipe, narghile, arghila, qalyān, shisha, among other names, is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for vaporising and smoking flavoured tobacco called shisha. The vapour or smoke is passed through a water basin (often glass-based) before inhalation.
Where did it come from?
It originated in Persia (Iran) from whence it spread to India, Egypt and the Levant during the Ottoman dynasty and later to North and South America, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Tanzania and South Africa.
Hookah, known as a hubbly bubbly or an okka pipe in South Africa, is especially popular among the Cape Malay and Indian populations, where it is smoked as a social pastime. However, hookah has also become increasingly popular with other South Africans, especially the youth.
Shocking facts
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that smoking a hookah is not safe, can become an addiction and poses other serious potential risks to people’s health. They point out that during an average 40 minutes to one hour smoking session, smokers may consume about 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke of a cigarette. Also, hookah smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals found in cigarettes such as carbon monoxide (six times more), tar (46 times more), arsenic, chromium, cobalt, cadmium, nickel and lead. It has been estimated that a bowl of hookah tobacco contains the amount of nicotine found in approximately 70 cigarettes. And, despite the different chemical composition of hookah and cigarette smoke, heavy and long-term use still has the potential to lead to diseases generally induced by tobacco.
Health effects of hookah smoking
According to recent scientific research reports, hookah smoking has been linked to the following health problems and diseases:
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- Chronic bronchitis
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- Tuberculosis
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- Carbon monoxide poisoning
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- Cancers such as lung cancer, oral cancer and prostate cancer
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- Heart disease
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- Pregnancy complications similar to those caused by cigarette smoking
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- Infection with the Hepatitis C virus and herpes from sharing mouthpieces.
Although hookah smoking is deemed more socially acceptable than cigarette smoking, medical researchers and other experts warn that people should not be deceived into seeing it as safe or a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. The same warning applies to hookah mixtures with lighter concentrations of tobacco and other so-called tobacco-free alternatives.
Sources
Hookah. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah
Hookah is not harmless, experts say. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/02/24/hookah-is-not-harmless-experts-say/
Martin, T. What is Hookah and Is it a safe way to smoke? Retrieved from: http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/smokingalternatives/p/Hookah-Information.htm