Spring 2009
GAINESVILLE, Fla.—- Hookah smokers beware.
Hookah tobacco is no safer than cigarette tobacco.
Flavored tobacco, known as hookah, has become a falsely “safe” alternative for cigarette smokers, though the physical repercussions are just as dangerous.
Unlike a single cigarette, hookah smoking allows a person to ingest tobacco for hours at a time.
During one hookah session averaging 20-80 minutes, a smoker will inhale as much smoke as a cigarette smoker would inhale consuming 100 or more cigarettes, according to the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Product Regulation Advisory Note.
Though the water in the bottom of the hookah, or waterpipe, filters out some nicotine, enough of the drug remains to cause addiction.
Cigarette and hookah smokers are at equal risk of several diseases including cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease and adverse effects during pregnancy, according to the advisory note.
University of Florida freshman Sam Polatsek has smoked hookah five or six times.
“I think hookah is still tobacco,” Polatsek said. “But I think it has less nicotine and the water at the bottom traps tar.”
When told about the advisory, Polatsek said he would think twice next time before smoking.
“I’m probably going to do it again,” he said. “But it freaks me out a little.”
The advisory note concludes that “using a waterpipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to smoking,” and that “a typical 1-hour long waterpipe smoking session involves inhaling 100-200 times the volume of smoke inhaled with a single cigarette.”
Waterpipes can be purchased for personal use, or a smoker can visit a social hookah lounge and pay to rent one.
“I like the communal aspect of hookah,” freshman Lauren Gray said. “I like the taste too.”
Sophomore Abhyona Grant has never smoked hookah, but her friends have.
“I don’t know much about it,” Grant said. “But I think hookah is safer.”
When told that smoking 100 cigarettes is equivalent to one hookah smoking session, Grant said she would spread the news.
“Hookah is very unhealthy if that is the case,” she said. “I will most definitely tell my friends.”
