Hookah smoking is actively marketed as a safe alternative to cigarettes because of the low percentage of tobacco and the smoke that is filtered through water. It has become more popular among college students who do not know the risks of smoking tobacco.
But studies have shown that this is not true and that hookah smoke contains the same amount of cancer-causing substances as cigarettes, according to the American Cancer Society Web site.
“Any product that is trying to get people to do it is going to market it as a safe product,” Ralph Davis, the Alchohol Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) coordinator, said. “It’s a ploy to get people to use the product.”
He said people think hookah is not really tobacco, that it has natural herbs, is not addictive and safer than tobacco.
Smoking hookah exposes a person to more smoke over a longer period of time than a cigarette smoker. It takes five to seven minutes to smoke a cigarette where it can take up to 80 minutes for a hookah session. A hookah smoker is inhaling more smoke in one session than a cigarette smoker who smokes 100 cigarettes, according to The World Health Organizations Web site.
Some Cal State Long Beach students said people have their own reasons for smoking hookah.
“I tried hookah because my friends did it and I was curious,” senior business marketing major Jerrin Inouye said. “Most people don’t think hookah smoking is bad because they have different fruit flavors and it’s in a cool vase thing with tubes so it doesn’t seem as bad for you.”
“I’m not a fan of smoking it but I like the ambiance,” said Vanessa Del Rio, a senior political science major.
Ehab Sadeq, the manager of Aladdin Hookah, a hookah bar in Long Beach, gave his insight about hookah.
“Hookah is absolutely bad for you,” he said. Sadeq said he does not smoke hookah himself.
“Most people smoke hookah because it’s relaxing and enjoyable,” he said.
“Hookah made me realize that I would never be a smoker,” said Art Andrade, a lifeguard at the Jewish Community Center in Long Beach. Andrade lived in Spain during the ’60s and would travel to Algeria, Africa and smoke Turkish tobacco.
“It was a social thing for the people at the hookah parlors, as well as for us,” he said.
The American Cancer Society Web site stated the water in a hookah pipe does not filter out all the toxins in the tobacco.
“Hookah smoke has been shown to contain concentrations of toxins, such as carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and heavy metals that are as high or higher than are seen with cigarette smoke,” according to the Web site.
Additionally, the American Cancer Society stated that 162,460 people died from lung and bronchus cancer in 2006 so far. This is the highest number of cancer-related deaths with colon and breast cancer following. Other diseases have also been linked to Hookah smoking such as, tuberculosis, hepatitis and HIV.
