Is hookah smoking safer than smoking tobacco?
June 6, 2007 – Hookah or water-pipe smoking, also known as narghile, shisha, or goza, has been used in the Middle East and Asia for more than 400 years. It is now become a growing fad and a worrisome epidemic among adolescents and young adults. According to the World Health Organization, a 1-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the individual to high levels of toxic compounds including carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and cancer-causing chemicals as well as significant levels of nicotine. Indeed, one 30- to 60-minute session is equivalent to smoking an entire pack of cigarettes at one sitting. Existing studies from Europe and Asia suggest that hookah smoking may increase malignancy in the lungs, gastrointestinal track, bladder, and lip. Also noted from these studies was a decrease in pulmonary function tests and increase in infectious disease from sharing the water pipe, including tuberculosis. A decrease in male fertility and low birth weight infants was another finding, along with ca
