Hookahs are Not Safer than Cigarettes
Pakistan Times Health Desk Report

AN American medical expert has said that smoking a hookah does not water down smoking-related health risks.

Hookah bars are becoming popular across the United States, particularly among college students and young adults, according to a report in Health Scout.

Hookahs, also called as 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 being inhaled by the smoker.

Some people believe that hookahs deliver less tar and nicotine than cigarettes and have fewer health consequences because the smoke is filtered by water.

However, Thomas Eissenberg, head of the Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University said, "Water pipe smoking may be associated with significant health risks, and we only now are beginning to accumulate information on the issue."

Initial research had indicated that hookahs can increase carbon dioxide and nicotine exposure, speed up heart rate, and may lead 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," said Eissenberg.●