HOOKAHS
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“A hookah is a multi-stemmed, often glass-based, water pipe device for smoking; originating in India, it gained fame under the Ottoman Turks. A hookah operates by water-filtration and indirect heat. It can be used for smoking many substances, such as herbal fruits and tobacco.” Depending on locality, hookahs are known as other names, such as a shisha/sheesha, water pipe, nargeela/nargile/ narghile/nargileh/narguilé, argeela/arghileh/arguilé, okka, kalyan, gewat suckre, or ghelyoon/ghalyan. Many of these names are of Arab, Indian, Turkish, Uzbek, or Persian origin.”
-Wikipedia |
Don’t be fooled! Smoking hookah is smoking tobacco. And, all tobacco products, whether consumed as cigarettes, spit tobacco, bidis or in hookahs puts your health at serious risk because:
- All tobacco contains the highly addictive drug nicotine.
- Tobacco contains more than 4,000 chemicals including lead, mercury and arsenic. Hookah smoke is known to contain significantly higher levels of toxic heavy metals like nickel, lead and arsenic than cigarette smoke.
- Hookah smoke contains 36 times more tar than a single cigarette.
- Hookah smoke contains 15 times more carbon monoxide than a single cigarette.
- Smoking hookah can lead to cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung damage and diseases of the mouth. Since hookahs are often shared by friends, this also increases the risk of spreading colds, flu and infections to one another. There is even documentation of passing herpes through the sharing of hookahs.
- The suction pressure required to inhale hookah smoke pushes the cancer-causing smoke deep into a person’s lungs and lasts about twice as long as a cigarette, causing more damage than a single cigarette.