Hookah Smoking More Harmful Than Cigarette Smoking

Do you know youths who smoke tobacco through a hookah because they think it’s safer than cigarette smoking?

Tell them they are making a big mistake. 

New research shows that hookah smokers can end up inhaling more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do. Hookah users often inhale more deeply over a longer period than cigarette users because of the hookah’s more pleasing aroma and taste.

Originally from India, a hookah, or water pipe, is a single or multi-stemmed smoking instrument, usually made of glass and consisting of a smoke chamber, a bowl, a pipe and a hose.

Science Daily reports a new study that smoking tobacco from a hookah is a popular activity for college students. The study’s authors found that hookah users mistakenly think that smoking from a hookah is less harmful than smoking a cigarette.

The researchers sent a web-based survey to a random sample of North Carolina college students to ask them about their smoking and drug habits. They reported in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence that 40 percent of students indicated they have smoked tobacco from a hookah, compared with 46 percent who reported having smoked a cigarette.

The survey found that freshmen and males were more likely to use hookahs, and that there was an association between those who used hookahs and those who smoked cigarettes, smoked marijuana, had a history of other illegal drug use, and had drank alcohol, Science Daily reports.

Learn more here.