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Hookah smoking: Is it safer than cigarettes?
By Mayo Clinic staffOriginal Article: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hookah/AN01265
- With Mayo Clinic internist and director of the Nicotine Dependence Center
Richard D. Hurt, M.D.
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- Why am I still coughing after I quit smoking?
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Question
Hookah smoking: Is it safer than cigarettes?
Is hookah smoking safer than smoking cigarettes? I've been told that the water used in the hookah makes the tobacco less toxic.
Answer
from Richard D. Hurt, M.D.
Hookah smoking is not safer than cigarette smoking. Also known as narghile, shisha and goza, a hookah is a water pipe with a smoke chamber, a bowl, a pipe and a hose. Specially made tobacco is heated, and the smoke passes through water and is then drawn through a rubber hose to a mouthpiece. The tobacco is no less toxic in a hookah pipe, and the water in the hookah does not filter out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco smoke. Hookah smokers may actually inhale more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do because of the large volume of smoke they inhale in one smoking session, which can last as long as 60 minutes.
While research about hookah smoking is still emerging, evidence shows that it poses many dangers:
- Hookah smoke contains high levels of toxic compounds, including tar, carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens). In fact, hookah smokers are exposed to more carbon monoxide and smoke than are cigarette smokers.
- As with cigarette smoking, hookah smoking is linked to lung and oral cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses.
- Hookah smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking does, possibly leading to tobacco dependence.
- Hookah smoke poses dangers associated with secondhand smoke.
- Hookah smoking by pregnant women can result in low birth weight babies.
- Hookah pipes used in hookah bars and cafes may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of infectious diseases.
Quit smoking, gain weight: Is it inevitable?
- Maziak W. The waterpipe: Time for action. Addiction. 2008;103:1763.
- Eissenberg T, et al. Waterpipe tobacco and cigarette smoking: Direct comparison of toxicant exposure. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2009;37:518.
- Noonan D, et al. New tobacco trends: Waterpipe (hookah) smoking and implications for healthcare providers. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. 2009;21:258.
- An emerging deadly trend: Waterpipe tobacco use. American Lung Association. http://slati.lungusa.org/reports/Trend%20Alert_Waterpipes.pdf. Accessed Dec. 14, 2009.
- Hurt RD (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Dec. 23, 2009.
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