Just How Dangerous is Hookah?

[interesteddad]

<p>

Shisha has been flavored for many years. It didn’t begin in the 1990s.

</p>

<p>Really? Not according to this paper which cites the introduction of fruit-flavored tobacco as a cause for reversing the decline of hookah smoking. Think of it as the Egyptian version of Joe Cool, the Camel mascot:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.tobaccofreeu.org/pdf/HookahWhitePaper.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tobaccofreeu.org/pdf/HookahWhitePaper.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

**Introduction of Flavored Tobacco. **In the early 1990s, Egyptian tobacco companies introduced “Maassel”, a specially prepared mixture containing sweetened fruit flavors and mild aromatic smoke which has helped to attract new hookah users worldwide (Primack, Aronson, and Agarwal, 2006; Maziak, Ward, Afifi Soweid, and Eissenberg, 2004; Parvaz, 2005; Rastam, et al., 2004). Maassel, known as “shisha” in the U.S., consists of about 30% of crude cut tobacco fermented with about 70% of honey, molasses, and the pulp of different fruits. It provides a pleasant aroma when heated slowly with burning charcoal and comes in a variety of flavors including apple, strawberry, rose, mango, cappuccino, banana, peach, lemon, orange, mint, and licorice (Maziak, Fouad, Hammal, et al, 2004). Currently, most hookah smokers around the world use Maassel rather than the traditional tobacco mix because it is more flavorful and makes the process of waterpipe preparation simpler because users do not need to moisten, shape, and dry the tobacco before use, as with other kinds of tobacco like Ajami (Maziak, Ward, et al., 2004; Rastam, et al., 2004).

</p>

[a_milli]

<p>

Really? Not according to this paper which cites the introduction of fruit-flavored tobacco as a cause for reversing the decline of hookah smoking. Think of it as the Egyptian version of Joe Cool, the Camel mascot:

</p>

<p>Haha, you’re referencing one particular brand/preparation of tobacco. Traditional hookah tobacco has commonly been sweetened or flavored since the practice originated.</p>

[phishfan0969]

<p>I didn’t say anyone who doesn’t smoke doesn’t live. I said you can’t judge something until you try it. Quite a difference.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Here are some facts on teen susceptibility to nicotine addiction, from a NY Times article earlier this year:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12brod.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12brod.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The research shows that teens who smoke, even occasionally, are at much higher risk of nicotine addicition. The reasons appear to center around less than fully developed brain chemistry.</p>

<p>More troubling is the statistical inability of young smokers to quit… only 3% of attempted quits by adolescents in a survey lasted a year. This is a number that is half to a third of the quit rate for totally unassisted (no support program) adult quitters.</p>

<p>You guys smoke all the hookah and cigarettes you want. It’s your life. I just don’t want one single teenager reading this thread to get the false notion that there is any safe exposure to tobacco. There isn’t.</p>

[HisGraceFillsMe]

<p>

Going off the fact that you didn’t really know that much about hookahs and you’re in college, I suggest you get out there and live life.

</p>

<p>Sounds like that’s what you’re implying.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>[AN</a> OLD CUSTOM, A NEW THREAT TO TOBACCO CONTROL – Primack et al. 96 (8): 1339 – American Journal of Public Health](<a href=“http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/full/96/8/1339#R3]AN”>http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/full/96/8/1339#R3)</p>

<p>AN OLD CUSTOM, A NEW THREAT TO TOBACCO CONTROL</p>

<p>

Until recently, most hookah tobacco was made by mixing shredded tobacco leaf with honey, molasses, or semidried fruit. **In the late 1980s, Egyptian tobacco companies began replacing the honey and molasses with glycerin, enhancing the sweetness and flavor of the tobacco, and adding an array of flavorings to make the product more appealing to less seasoned palates.**2 Today, hookah tobacco can be found in varieties including sweet melon, strawberry, grape, cola, mango, vanilla, mixed fruit, and mint. These innovations have captivated the youth market around the world.3 At Carnegie Mellon University, fruit- and candy-flavored tobacco is even available in the on-campus convenience store. </p>

<p>**The earlier in age people begin smoking, the more likely they are to become strongly addicted to nicotine,4 and physical addiction to nicotine can develop extremely rapidly.5 These facts are likely true whether the nicotine is delivered via cigarette or hookah.**6 Cigarette smoking in the United States is at its lowest level in 55 years,7 with proportionate decreases among adolescents.8 The increased popularity of hookah smoking may therefore represent a way for the tobacco industry to addict young people to nicotine and then transition them to cigarette smoking later in their lives.

</p>

<p>[Estimating</a> the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria](<a href=“http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=15294023]Estimating”>http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=15294023)</p>

<p>Estimating the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria.
Rastam S, Ward KD, Eissenberg T, Maziak W. Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies, Aleppo, Syria. <a href="mailto:samer@scts-sy.org">samer@scts-sy.org</a></p>

<p>

BACKGROUND: Waterpipe smoking is becoming a global public health problem, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR). METHODS: We try in this study, which is a cross sectional survey among a representative sample of waterpipe smokers in cafes/restaurants in Aleppo-Syria, to assess the time period for the beginning of this new smoking hype. We recruited 268 waterpipe smokers (161 men, 107 women; mean age +/- standard deviation (SD) 30.1 +/- 10.2, response rate 95.3%). Participants were divided into 4 birth cohorts (</= 1960, 1961-1970, 1971-1980, >1980) and year of initiation of waterpipe smoking and daily cigarette smoking were plotted according to these birth cohorts. RESULTS: Data indicate that unlike initiation of cigarette smoking, which shows a clear age-related pattern, the nineties was the starting point for most of waterpipe smoking implicating this time period for the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria. CONCLUSION: The introduction of new flavored and aromatic waterpipe tobacco (Maassel), and the proliferation of satellite and electronic media during the nineties may have helped spread the new hype all over the Arab World.</p>

<p>

</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>On tobacco marketing in Egypt:</p>

<p>[Viewpoint:</a> Tobacco Marketing — Where There’s Smoke, there’s Deception: International Development Research Centre](<a href=“http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-5611-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#]Viewpoint:”>http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-5611-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#)</p>

<p>

Hooking women on smoking</p>

<p>**Like many developing countries, smoking is a well-established habit among adult males in Egypt (44 percent of whom smoke). It is still socially unacceptable for women (with only 5 percent smoking), although the use of Shisha or the water pipe is fast becoming a fashionable way for women to socialize.A recent advertisement for Shisha in the Air Egypt in-flight magazine shows small boxes with pictures of colourful fresh fruit and mint leaves on the outside and descriptions such as “fruit/mint/apple flavour”. **A teapot in the center of the ad, immediately behind the hookah, leads one initially to think that the advertisement is for herbal tea. Not coincidentally, tea drinking forms a popular and pivotal element of social gatherings among Egyptians. The tobacco industry’s efforts to inculcate the use of shisha into tea breaks is a carefully calculated strategy to incorporate this habit into the most fundamental and habitual of Egyptian behaviours.

</p>

[gdorf]

<p>Oh yes, shisha has been getting sweeter, but it’s always been flavored and sweet.</p>

[phishfan0969]

<p>HisGraceFillsMe, I’m talking about knowledge. Not knowing what a hookah gets one high or not at that age is pretty suspect of a sheltered life. Even if the OP went to the hookah bar and didn’t smoke, it would be a far superior life experience than asking people on the internet about it…especially people on CC who tend to have negative connotations about anything related to “partying”-for lack of a better term.</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>^^ I think there are lots of people who haven’t heard of hookah or know the details about it prior to college. IMO it’s wiser to understand what someone’s potentially about to get into rather than always diving in headfirst so I think the OP made a wise decision by asking here rather than just consenting to go to something she knew little or nothing about.</p>

[2boysima]

<p>Smoking Hookah is smoking tobacco…and has addictive and health implications. It’s fact. There really is no argument.</p>

<p>The excellent article published by The Mayo Clinic was referenced earlier in this thread.</p>

<p>Here’s one from the World Health Organization:
<a href=“http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_interaction/tobreg/Waterpipe%20recommendation_Final.pdf[/url]”>http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_interaction/tobreg/Waterpipe%20recommendation_Final.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And from the Centers for Disease Control: [Smoking</a> and Tobacco Use | Fact Sheet | Hookahs | Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) | CDC](<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs.htm]Smoking”>http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs.htm)</p>

<p>The Journal of Adolescent Health, as referenced in the NY Times
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/20haza.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/20haza.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>For some people, it may be possible to be an occasional hookah smoker or a social cigarette smoker. But there are still health implications. </p>

<p>Most young people, even smokers, are aware of the dangers of cigaratte tobaccao. The danger of hookah is that young people seem to view it as something that does not have any relationship at all to “real” tobacco. </p>

<p>I also commend the OP for trying to get more info. before joining in.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>

I think there are lots of people who haven’t heard of hookah or know the details about it prior to college.

</p>

<p>Not to mention that the hookah was historically used to smoke opium and hashish, only later being adapted to smoke tobacco which was cultivated in Iran.</p>

<p>I’m sure it would surprise today’s college students to find out that hookahs and waterpipes were pretty common in the 1970s, when they were used almost exclusively for smoking marijuana and hashish.</p>

[lspf72]

<p>I also think the OP brought up a very important point when she wondered who would be driving afterwards. Could partaking at the hookah bar affect driving or judgement? I don’t know, but a woman was killed here last week by a kid who was driving after supposedly smoking “a little pot.”</p>

<p>The other poster is correct in that most of us here on the parents’ thread probably have a somewhat negative view of a lot of what constitutes partying-- but we sometimes have some background to base it on - even if it was a long time ago. IMO, most of it is overrated at best, and dangerous at worst. I don’t see OP as sheltered, so much as curious and cautious. There are plenty of opportunities in life for risk and adventure. We don’t have to take all of them.</p>

[lspf72]

<p>SV2 – very interesting (post 57). Had wondered if that might be the case for certain people.</p>

[gdorf]

<p>

@lspf72

I also think the OP brought up a very important point when she wondered who would be driving afterwards. Could partaking at the hookah bar affect driving or judgement? I don’t know, but a woman was killed here last week by a kid who was driving after supposedly smoking “a little pot.”

</p>

<p>Hookah delivers nicotine. Nicotine does not markedly impair motor skills. Now, if somebody smoked so much that they effectively overdosed on nicotine, they could feel quite ill which might impair their driving.</p>

<p>As for that student, they were almost certainly lying or there were other circumstances involved. “A little pot” would do not impair driving markedly, if at all.</p>

[a_milli]

<p>

Not to mention that the hookah was historically used to smoke opium and hashish, only later being adapted to smoke tobacco which was cultivated in Iran.

</p>

<p>Nope, this is simply a commonly-believed urban legend. Smoking opium and hashish is against Islamic law.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Smoking tobacco also delivers a high concentration of carbon monoxide to the bloodstream along with reduced oxygen levels. This frequently results in dizziness and slowed reaction times in novice smokers.</p>

<p>That should be a fairly short-lived effect after smoking has stopped.</p>

[lspf72]

<p>gdorf-- that’s why the quotes-- it was almost certainly not a little, sadly.</p>

[gdorf]

<p>Yeah. One of the problems with marijuana is that there is no good way to measure acute intoxication - one can measure metabolite levels after the fact, but that may provide little to no information about how intoxicated the person actually was.</p>

<p>What a tragedy that must have been. :(</p>

[FreeThinking]

<p>combats parkinsons studies have shown</p>