Effects of Smoking Hookah
What is Hookah?
Hookah is typically a container that has water present in it. The tobacco is heated in the bowl placed at the top of hookah; this chamber is slowly heated converting the tobacco or the flavour into smoke. The smoke is then delivered to the mouth through a small hose/the device mouthpiece.
Hookah smoking was introduced to many of us as a healthy alternative to cigarette smoking. Hookah bars are filled with young kids sitting and smoking hookah as if it was a recreational activity. The main reason why there are 100’s of bars and cafes offering hookah these days. However, research says hookah smoking is not as safe as it has been proclaimed earlier. So much so that sometimes the effects on one’s health is more dangerous than cigarette smoking.
Is Hookah Smoke Bad for Health???
All the researchers on Hookah smoke prove that hookah smoke is just as dangerous and as harmful to a person as the cigarette smoke. In fact, some studies show that hookah smoke is said to cause similar diseases and disorders in the respiratory system as cigarette smoke.
Myths of Hookah Smoking Busted:
- Myth: Hookah smoke is filtered, and thus it filters out the harmful ingredients.
Truth: Smoking tobacco through the water in no ways filter out cancer-causing chemicals. It damages the heart and lungs as much as the cigarette does.
- Myth: Hookah smoke is cooler and does not burn the lungs and thus it is not harmful.
Truth: The smoke is cooled by the water in the hookah, even though the smoke is cooled it contains carcinogens and thus is unhealthy.
- Myth: Smoking hookah is not as addictive as a cigarette, as there is no nicotine.
Truth: Just like regular tobacco even hookah contains nicotine. In fact, because one session goes on for at least an hour the smokers are exposed to 100 times more volume of smoke than a cigarette.
- Myth: Smoking hookah is healthier than smoking cigarette
Truth: The smoke is just as dangerous as the cigarette, just the process of generating heat is different. The end product is the same.
- Myth: Shisha contains flavours and no tobacco thus it is healthier
Truth: Tobacco is tobacco, whether you smoke it as a cigarette or as a shisha. The flavours still contain cancer-causing chemicals.
Facts: Compared to smoking a cigarette. Hookah smoke is said to provide greater levels of arsenic acid, 15 times more carbon mono oxide, and about 36 times more tar. The reason being smoking hookah required taking harder and longer drags which in turn increases the level of nicotine in the blood. As the shisha is exposed and used by various others, the risk of spreading infection is much higher in the case of hookah.
Hookah smoking is bad for pregnant women as they might give birth to underweight children and these underweight children also have the danger of developing lung disorders. Also, smoking of hookah is as harmful to the person sitting next to the smoker as to the individual who smokes it.
Quit smoking, Quit hookah- Spread the message and saves lives.
