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I don't smoke, but I have smoked a cigarette once a long time ago (I was a kid and my dad wanted to sway me from it by having me try, it worked), and smoking a hookah pipe is nothing like a cigarette at all. It doesn't feel harsh, but instead is much like breathing. In this sense, I become very curious about how bad it is for you, and how it compares to cigarette smoking from a health standpoint..
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There aren't many studies, because it has only recently become popular.
The little I've read has only referred to studies that show that particular toxins pass through water filters unhindered.
On the other hand, hooka smoking isn't done as often as cigarette smoking.
Think of it as being exposed to toxic chemicals less often, not as being exposed to less toxic chemicals.
Nicotene does get through the filter, for example. Nicotene is one of the most addictive substances known to man. You can become chemically dependant on nicotene by using a hooka.
The extra material (3/4 of a hooka mix tends to be non-tobacco) is also burned. In general, inhaling the fumes of something that is burning isn't very good for you.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=32605
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Hookah Smoking Not Safer Than Cigarettes
FRIDAY, May 14 (HealthDayNews) -- Smoking a hookah doesn't water down smoking-related health risks, warns an expert concerned about the spread of this form of tobacco use in the United States.
Hookah bars are becoming popular across the country, particularly among college students and young adults.
Hookahs, also called water pipes, originated in the Middle East. In a hookah, tobacco is heated by charcoal. The tobacco smoke passes through a water-filled chamber, which cools the smoke before it's inhaled by the smoker.
Some people think hookahs deliver less tar and nicotine than cigarettes and have fewer health consequences because the smoke is filtered by the water.
Not true, Thomas Eissenberg, head of the Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a prepared statement.
"Water pipe smoking may be associated with significant health risks, and we only now are beginning to accumulate information on the issue," Eissenberg said.
Initial research indicates hookahs can increase carbon dioxide and nicotine exposure, speed up heart rate, and may contribute to heart disease and cancer.
"The water pipe is another method of tobacco use, one that we should not ignore as we fight the tobacco epidemic. Past experience has taught us that ignoring the epidemiology and health effects of tobacco-use products can lead to a public health disaster that may have been preventable," Eissenberg said.
He published a study in the April issue of Preventive Medicine that found hookah smoking, particularly for women, generally is viewed in a more positive light than smoking cigarettes. It's one of the first studies to examine the effects of social attitudes and gender on hookah and cigarette smoking.
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http://web.archive.org/web/200312061...s/s1003859.htm
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Research doubts hookah's health benefits
Turks may believe smoking hookahs wards off bad luck, but researchers say the water pipes are harmful to your health, Turkish newspapers said.
Cafes serving the tobacco and dried fruit mixture have been the haunt of older men since the 17th century, but in recent years they have become popular with tourists and young urban Turks seeking "bubbling conversation" over water pipes, called nargile in Turkey.
"A dog does not bite he who smokes the nargile and thieves do not enter his home," is an old Turkish proverb.
There has been little research on the effects of the nargile, but researchers at Dokuz Eylul University in the western city of Izmir have now found smoking from the pipes reduces lung capacity by 30 per cent in non-smokers and 40 per cent in people who also smoke cigarettes.
"This research shows that tobacco, whatever its use or dose, is a product that causes harm. People should stay away from all varieties of tobacco," Oguz Kilinc, who led the research, was quoted as saying by a newspaper.
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