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Smoking hookahs? Think twice!
02/Oct/2006: With many youngsters getting addicted to hookahs (a traditional device used for smoking in Middle East and in South Asia), under the impression that hookahs are less toxic than cigarettes, experts warn that hookahs are as harmful as cigarettes and this habit could become an epidemic, if left unchecked.
Christopher Loffredo, PhD, Director of the Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology Program at Georgetown University Medical Centre, Washington, said that smoking hookah for 30-60 minutes is as harmful as smoking a pack of cigarettes and he dismissed the general perception among youngsters that hookahs are less toxic than cigarettes, as ‘nonsense’.
Loffredo said that people who smoke hookahs do not realize that it is as toxic as smoking cigarettes, because large quantities of pure and shredded tobacco are used in hookahs. Loffredo, who has been studying the use of tobacco in Egypt from 1997, found that the amount of cellular damage caused by smoking hookah is similar to that caused by smoking cigarettes.
He added that in cultures, like that in Egypt, women, who are not allowed to smoke cigarettes, are resorting to smoking hookahs, which is acceptable in the society.
Since hookahs operate by water-filtration and indirect heat, many people are under the misconception that the water used in the device absorbs the toxins in tobacco, which makes it lot safer than cigarettes. However, Loffredo found that people who smoke hookahs are exposed to large amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide and a host of other toxins.
He also found that since tobacco burns at a lower temperature in hookahs and water pipes, it is easily inhaled and causes much more damage to the respiratory tracts when compared to cigarettes. However, Loffredo feels that more studies need to be carried out, to quantify the actual risks of smoking hookahs.
K Siva
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