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Are you implying that if there is no real addiction, you don’t consider it “smoking?” All tobacco products contain nicotine including hookah and cigars, so they are both potentially addictive.</p>
<p>They weren’t saying that people who occassionally smoke don’t smoke. Just wondering if many of the issues people have with regular smokers apply to the occassional smoker since they don’t smoke very often or rarely.</p>
<p>Central Perky: What gives you that idea? Did I say that? Did it even seem like I was remotely implying that? I hope not, because if it did to you then you’re reading too deeply.</p>
<p>I said what I meant: in this thread, it seems like “smoking” is used to mean regular cigarette smoking, likely caused by addiction to nicotine.</p>
<p>Is hookah and cigar smoking smoking? Of course. Is social cigarette usage smoking? Of course. Are those things worlds different from regular cigarette smokers? Absolutely.</p>
<p>While you can get addicted to anything that contains nicotine, it is much harder to get addicted to hookah or cigars - you don’t inhale either type of tobacco, and the lungs are much richer in blood vessels than the mouth. Also, in the case of hookah, the water helps to filter some of the nicotine out.</p>
<p>That is why I said before that I don’t consider a social smoker of cigars or hookah anywhere close to the same as a regular smoker of cigarettes. For one thing, most of the former are not actually addicted to nicotine, and also they tend to smell much better. I wouldn’t even have that much problem dating a social cigarette smoker, except that cigarettes themselves smell bad, so I’d dislike being with that person during a night when they were smoking cigarettes.</p>
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<p>1of42, the misinformation you have provided scares the **** out of me. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/557428_2[/url]”>A Pack in 30 Minutes - Page 2;
<p>"Is hookah smoking safer than other tobacco products?</p>
<p>A common misperception is that hookah smoking is less dangerous than cigarette smoking, when, in fact, the use of the hookah may result in a higher concentration of absorbed nicotine. Nicotine is a very addictive chemical in the adolescent/young adult population. These toxins are not filtered by the water in the hookah pipe, nor does adding moisture to the smoking tobacco (water pipe) lessen its poisonous effects. Another risky behavior that is currently in vogue is adding marijuana or hashish to tobacco and using alcohol instead of water in the pipe. This practice may lead to addiction and other acute health hazards (Knishkowy & Amitai, 2005)."</p>
<p>More evidence:</p>
<p>1) They contain toxic compounds including carbon monoxide</p>
<p>2) They contain tobacco specific nitroamines that are cancer causing</p>
<p>3) Many studies show that levels of compounds coming through the Hookah are at least as high if not higher than cigarette smoke</p>
<p>4) Sharing a mouthpiece has a risk of infection including herpes</p>
<p>5)Chemicals found in Hookah that are at a higher level than cigarettes include:</p>
<pre><code>* Tar
- PAH
- Chrysene (tumor initiator)
- Phenanthrene (co-carcinogen)
</code></pre>
<p>Source: The National Cancer Institute: Tobacco Control Research Branch</p>
<p>…I think boys who smoke are kinda hot.</p>
<p>In response to gprime’s question, I’d definitely be fine with dating someone who smokes occasionally (once a month or so) and have in the past. Basically, as long as I can’t tell that he’s been smoking (no smells, no tastes, etc.) and I find him attractive, there’s no problem. The issue for me is when the smell of smoke becomes a key characteristic of the individual.</p>
<p>You’re right smurfgirl: I meant that it helps filter some of the tar out. Despite your source disputing that (which I can’t read, by the way, since it requires registration which I don’t want to do), the assertion that it contains higher concentrations of tar (benzopyrene being the main carcinogen in tar), is likely false - or at least debatable. <a href=“http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc211.htm[/url]”>http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc211.htm</a> suggests that:</p>
<p>“Sheesha smoke is mild and low in particulate matter, benzo( a) pyrene and volatile phenols, but it has a high level of carbon monoxide, in part from the charcoal that keeps the tobacco burning, and smokers have high carboxyhaemoglobin levels and a reduced FEV1 (8.5% in women, 45% in men).”</p>
<p>As for me, I smoke tobacco-free hookah (smoke for the taste), so while I still get some carcinogens in the form of the various combustion products that one inhales in the presence of any incomplete combustion (campfires, air pollution, etc.), the concentrations are very very low, enough so that I can mostly disregard them. That said, I only smoke hookah maybe once a month, twice at most.</p>
<p>Oh sorry, 1of42. For some reason it shows up on my computer and I’m not even registered! </p>
<p>I don’t do hookah but my friends have wanted me to.</p>
<p>No problem.</p>
<p>As for friends wanting you to smoke, obviously only do it if you’re comfortable, but imo it’s tasty, and the upside is it doesn’t make you smell at all of tobacco afterwards.</p>
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<p>Definitely true. I was just speaking about first impressions that I receive from a person who smokes. We’re all vulnerable to receiving first impressions about a person before they even open their mouths to utter a word.</p>
<p>In my own life, the people who i’ve seen smoke are the same people that I see out on street corners looking trashy, carrying around oxygen tanks, reeking to high heaven of an ashtray, and being generally repulsive in more ways than just what the addiction causes.</p>
<p>My brother married a woman who comes from a smoking family. Naturally, she too is addicted, but she can somehow manage to control it more than most people. To summarize though, her uncle died of lung cancer, and both her father and her brother have emphysema. Everytime I see her brother, he looks like a walking corpse with sunken eyes, a sickly complexion, and non-stop wheezing. Her father had to carry around oxygen with him everywhere he went before he passed away. Despite this, they both still smoked up until the end even when they were on their last legs, and her brother continues to smoke to this day.</p>
<p>I guess some of us are lucky in that we have the chance to see what smoking can do first hand to people in real life, as opposed to merely what we hear or read about in the media. Others have to live and learn the truth about it and suffer shortened and poorer quality lives as a result. By then though, it’s often too late, even if they know they should quit and perhaps even want to.</p>
<p>This girl really liked me, and I mean REALLY (she even told me). I liked her too, but everywhere I turned on campus I would see her puffing away…MAJOR turn off…needless to say I didn’t end up dating her. She didn’t smell or anything but I can’t date a girl who is going to be walking outside to light up. My family and myself are strictly against smoking, its a horrible thing that just eats your body inside out. (I’m a guy).</p>
<p>I smoke the occasional ciggarette with my girlfriend. And she bought a hookah a while ago. :)</p>
<p>I would never date a smoker. Disgusting ash tray kissing, bad smelling clothes, terribly unhealthy, especially later in life. Never. </p>
<p>edit: I’m a guy that dates girls.</p>
<p>i would not date a guy that smokes</p>
<p>I dated a smoker and, as if the smoke itself were not problem, she was always stressing out over “where are my cigarettes” “I need a cigarette” “let’s stop for cigarettes.” It was an incredible turnoff, to say the least.</p>
<p>Frankly, no- smokers smell (no offense). I have a good friend that smokes, but he reeks of cigarettes, and it’s just not that socially attractive.</p>
<p>no smokers. ever. </p>
<p>i’m allergic to smoke. i hate the smell, and i don’t want to be around a person who is a walking chimney.</p>
<p>Um what’s ANY advantage of smoking?? Honestly, there are cooler ways to die!!!All it does is make you smell bad, give you bad teeth, and give you lung cancer! Wow! I think I’ll try it. It’s the most ■■■■■■■■ decision anyone can make.</p>
<p>I would never date a smoker.</p>
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<p>Aren’t the effects of carbon monoxide purely acute? If the carbon monoxide concentrations aren’t enough to hurt you by acute exposure, it’s unlikely that they’ll hurt you in the long run (unlike the carcinogens present in tobacco)</p>