View Photos Hookah smoking is the recent trend among youngsters and one can find several hookah parlors on busy roads. Several restaurants too have started offering hookah. Hookah has a smoke chamber, a bowl, a pipe, hose and mouthpiece. Tobacco along with charcoal is heated in the bowl and the base is filled with water. The pipe is connected to the bowl. The smoke thus created, is taken through the hose and mouthpiece.
Hookah with it's origin in Indian subcontinents had once been a status symbols and was the habit of the elite. With time cigarettes came over and smoking through the pipe was out of trend but as it is said, history repeats itself, hookah is back along with it's several health risks. It a myth that hookah smoking health risks are lower than cigarette smoking. The reality is that both are at power when it comes to harming health. Lets look at some of the health risk of hookah smoking -
1.The worst health risk of hookah smoking is due to the use of charcoal which is used to heat the tobacco. Burnt charcoal emits carbon monoxide. Inhaling carbon monoxide enhances the health risk of oral and lung cancer.
2.WHO has proved with it's several experiments that one hour hookah is equivalent to inhaling 200 times the volume of nicotine inhaled with one cigarette. One session of hookah is equivalent to consuming 36 times the tar inhaled through a cigarette. This is a wake up call for all those who thought that hookah was safer than cigarette.
3.It is believed that the recycled smoke from the water pipes filters the smoke devoiding it of all the toxins. This is a myth. The pipe does not filter any of the toxins, rather a hookah smoker inhales a lot more smoke at one time than when he smokes cigarette. This increases the health risk of hookah smoking.
4.It leads to cellular chromosomal damage inside the mouth. This leads to several oral infections like bleeding gums, mouth ulcers, dark patches and oral cancer.
4.The smoke inhaled by a hookah hit the lungs much more directly than cigarette. Regular practice along with putting the man at the risk of lung cancer also can lead to other internal damage.
5.Hookah during pregnancy leads to miscarriage, still birth and also low weight babies.
Hookah most of the time is done for the sake of fun and now, with availability in several flavours, it has gained added popularity among both men and women. The next time you are tempted to take a puff remember these health risks of hookah smoking.