Is HOOKAH SMOKING SAFE ???????

Hookah smoking is a growing trend among young people. This practice of smoking through an oversized pipe is rapidly gaining a following as hookah bars open up and cafes and coffee shops dedicate special areas for hookah devotees to enjoy a leisurely smoke. Originating in India, the practice of hookah smoking has spread to the Middle Eastern countries and is now growing in the United States as young people look for an alternative to smoking cigarettes. Most people who smoke through a hookah pipe use flavored tobaccos known as shisha. These tobaccos are enhanced with molasses and fruit flavorings before being added to the pipe. Hookah smoking is often portrayed as being healthier than smoking traditional cigarettes. Is this true? What are the potential risks and side effects of hookah smoking?
 
Most of the people think hookah smoking as a safer alternative to other forms of smoking because the hookah smoke is filtered through water before it is inhaled. But recent studies have found that smoking from a hookah is just as dangerous as smoking a cigarette.
                  HOOKAH SMOKING involves more nicotine than cigarette smoking because of the massive volume of smoke, smokers inhale during hookah smoking.
                       There is a strong belief that the water in the hookah filters out all the “bad stuff” in the tobacco smoke, but it’s completely a nuisance. A study done by the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION showed that one hookah session of a mere few hours can deliver as much smoke into your lungs as 100 cigarettes. In fact, hookah smokers get more smoke than cigarette smokers, and here’s an answer to this question:
                      Cigarette smoke is uncomfortably hot if a smoker inhales it deeply. Hookah smoke has been cooled by its passage through the water. The smoker has to inhale hard to pull the smoke through the hookah. By this the hookah smoke goes deep to the lungs. In to the duration of a typical hookah session, the smoke deposits in huge volumes into the lungs

What Hookah Smoking Does To Your Health?

 he American Lung Association (ALA) identifies hookah smoking as a major health risk. The following are the health risks of hookah smoking:

• Lung cancer, oral cancer
• Gastric and esophageal carcinoma
• Impaired pulmonary function
• Heart disease
• Reduced fertility
• Low birth weight of the babies
• Hepatitis or herpes (caused due to the sharing of hookah among smokers)

A cigarette may last for about 5 minutes, but a normal hookah session would last for 30 minutes. According to a study, a single hookah session may deliver the following:

• 36 times the tar produced by cigarette
• 1.7 times the nicotine produced by cigarette
• 8.3 times the carbon monoxide produced by cigarette
• 1 hour of hookah session can deliver 50 liters of smoke whereas a single cigarette delivers only 0.5 liters of smoke.   

What is the bottom line for hookah smokers who think it as a better substitute to cigarette smoking?

Hookah smoking is not a harmless form of smoking. It can be as dangerous as cigarettes. The long-term consequence of hookah smoking would be increased dependency. Some youngsters, who innocently try hookah as a safe means of smoking, can get addicted. They can further switch to cigarettes as they can be carried around easily. All this proves that hookah smoking cannot be dismissed as safe alternative. Hence, it always helps to stay away from a hookah.
Almost every method of making smoking safer is a mere nonsense. There is only one way to totally reduce the chances of fatal diseases caused by smoking, is to quit smoking completely.