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Updated April 21, 2015.

What a Hookah is:

Also known as narghile, argileh, shisha, hubble-bubble, shisha or goza, a hookah is a water pipe that is used to smoke flavored and sweetened tobacco. The hookah pipe houses separate chambers for the tobacco and water, and has one or more flexible tubing stems from which consumers inhale the tobacco smoke.

Hookah tobacco is often flavored with molasses, fruit pulp or honey and has had additional flavor added, such as coconut, fruit flavors, mint or coffee.


Flavorings sweeten the taste and aroma of hookah tobacco, making it more appealing to young people, especially.

How the Hookah Works:

The tobacco chamber in a hookah consists of a bowl that contains burning charcoal on top of the flavored tobacco. Typically the charcoal is separated from the tobacco by perforated aluminum foil.

The charcoal heats the tobacco below, creating smoke. When users draw on the stem of the hookah, the tobacco smoke is pulled through the water chamber, where it is cooled before being inhaled into the smoker's lungs.

Health Dangers Associated with Hookah Smoking:

People often believe that smoking from a hookah removes the nicotine and other toxins from the tobacco. This is not true. The nicotine in hookah tobacco is addictive, and like cigarette smokers, people who smoke hookah are at risk for oral cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, cancer of the esophagus, respiratory diseases, heart disease, and fertility problems.

Hookah Facts:

• An hour of hookah use exposes smokers to 100-200 times the volume of smoke in a typical cigarette.

• A bowl of hookah tobacco contains the amount of nicotine in approximately 70 cigarettes.
• Compared to traditional cigarette smoke, hookah smoke has about 6 times more carbon monoxide and 46 times more tar.
• Hookah smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals in traditional cigarette smoke: carbon monoxide, tar, arsenic, chromium, cobalt, cadmium, nickel and lead.
• Burning charcoal used to heat tobacco exposes smokers to additional carbon monoxide and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

Hookah History:

Hookah pipes have been in use for about 400 years, originating in India and Asia. In the early 1600s, Hakim Abdul Fath, a physician from India invented the hookah, believing the health hazards of tobacco smoke would be minimized by passing it through water before inhalation.

In the 1990s, flavored tobacco became popular in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, and hookah use grew out of that, spreading around the world.

Today, hookah is a popular pastime for young people in the United States, with hookah lounges popping up in big cities and around college campuses across the country.

Hookah Lounges:

A hookah lounge offers patrons the opportunity to smoke with a group from a communal hookah pipe. Usually placed in the center of a table with numerous stems to smoke from, the hookah is packed with one of a variety of flavored tobaccos on the menu. Hookah lounges often serve alcoholic drinks and food as well as tobacco.

Popular with college students, hookah smoking is regarded as a unique way to socialize with friends.

Bottom Line:

Hookah tobacco is addictive and every bit as hazardous to a smoker's health as traditional cigarettes. Additionally, a one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes smokers to as much nicotine and toxins as they would get from a day or more of cigarette smoking.

In the short term, hookah smoking raises blood pressure and heart rate, which may increase the risk for heart attack and stroke.

In the long term, hookah smoking may contribute to a variety of cancers, heart disease and lung disease.

Protect your health and steer clear of hookah.  There is no such thing as safe tobacco, and hookah use is no exception.

Sources:

_{Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hookahs. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs/ Accessed May 2011.}