The Daily OrangeToback: Smoking hookah not worth the health risk
By Rebecca Toback
Posted: 11/19/09, 2:22 AM EST Section: Feature
Some people say they are willing to try anything once. And for me, toking on a hookah will be a one time thing. I came, I tried, I won't be going back. I just don't get it. Is there a benefit to be gained that balances off the harmful carcinogens in the hookah? Not as far as I am concerned.
If you have never wasted your time (or your lungs) smoking hookah, consider yourself lucky. Hookah is a water pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco. It is heated with charcoal and its smoke passes through water in the hookah before users inhale it using an attached mouthpiece.
Smokers who think that trying hookah as a healthier alternative to cigarettes are way off base. Hookah smokers inhale a greater volume of smoke, worsening the effects of the chemicals in the tobacco.
"Data from several different countries reveals that a single hookah-use episode lasts for about 45 minutes and can easily involve over 100 puffs," said Thomas Eissenberg, professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose research is funded by a grant for the National Cancer Institute.
"Each puff is about 500 ml in volume, while a single cigarette-use episode lasts about 5 minutes and can involve about 10-12 puffs of about 30-50 ml each. We are talking 100 times the smoke inhalation for a hookah-use episode, 50,000 ml total volume relative to a single cigarette-use episode, 500 ml total volume."
To put things in perspective, 50,000 ml is 25 two-liter soda bottles worth of smoke, which Eissenberg notes is way too much smoke for the human lungs to deal with.
While it is widely known that cigarette smoking is bad for your health, hookah is possibly even worse. Hookah smoking is becoming popular across the country with hookah cafes opening up in many cities. Last semester, a hookah bar opened on Marshall Street but closed after just a few months. I guess the cost to expose one's self to cancer must have not worked well in this economy.
At hookah bars, the cost of a hookah session typically runs $20 per hookah. A cheaper option that many avid hookah smoking students employ is buying their own hookahs and smoking them right outside their dorms or in their off-campus homes. Last year during the few warm days that Syracuse offered, I would see students sitting on the benches outside of my dorm smoking hookah. There was even a point during the year when people on my floor discussed purchasing a communal floor hookah. I took a pass, not a toke.
If you have never wasted your time (or your lungs) smoking hookah, consider yourself lucky. Hookah is a water pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco. It is heated with charcoal and its smoke passes through water in the hookah before users inhale it using an attached mouthpiece.
Smokers who think that trying hookah as a healthier alternative to cigarettes are way off base. Hookah smokers inhale a greater volume of smoke, worsening the effects of the chemicals in the tobacco.
"Data from several different countries reveals that a single hookah-use episode lasts for about 45 minutes and can easily involve over 100 puffs," said Thomas Eissenberg, professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose research is funded by a grant for the National Cancer Institute.
"Each puff is about 500 ml in volume, while a single cigarette-use episode lasts about 5 minutes and can involve about 10-12 puffs of about 30-50 ml each. We are talking 100 times the smoke inhalation for a hookah-use episode, 50,000 ml total volume relative to a single cigarette-use episode, 500 ml total volume."
To put things in perspective, 50,000 ml is 25 two-liter soda bottles worth of smoke, which Eissenberg notes is way too much smoke for the human lungs to deal with.
While it is widely known that cigarette smoking is bad for your health, hookah is possibly even worse. Hookah smoking is becoming popular across the country with hookah cafes opening up in many cities. Last semester, a hookah bar opened on Marshall Street but closed after just a few months. I guess the cost to expose one's self to cancer must have not worked well in this economy.
At hookah bars, the cost of a hookah session typically runs $20 per hookah. A cheaper option that many avid hookah smoking students employ is buying their own hookahs and smoking them right outside their dorms or in their off-campus homes. Last year during the few warm days that Syracuse offered, I would see students sitting on the benches outside of my dorm smoking hookah. There was even a point during the year when people on my floor discussed purchasing a communal floor hookah. I took a pass, not a toke.
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