Smoking Hookah as Harmful as Smoking Cigarettes: Study

Smoking tobacco through hookah is common among college students and is slowly gaining popularity. Many are blinded with the misconception that hookah is less harmful when compared to smoking cigarettes.

But the latest study conducted by researchers at US San Francisco states that hookah contains a mix of toxins that are harmful. According to them, hookah exposes smokers to high levels of carbon monoxide that cause great damage to the heart, as well as respiratory diseases. Apart from carbon monoxide, hookah exposes one to greater levels of benzene that is linked with the risk of developing leukemia.

The study was conducted by UCSF research chemist Peyton Jacob III, PhD, and UCSF tobacco researcher Neal Benowitz, MD, both based at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. They claim that smoking hookah is not a safe alternative to smoking cigarette and is in no way an effective harm-reduction strategy.

Benowitz said that when compared to non-smokers, a person smoking hookah on a regular basis is more likely to suffer from an increased risk of cancer.

In order to prove their hypothesis, the study was conducted on eight men and five women who had prior experience of smoking cigarettes and hookah. These participants were asked to smoke an average of three hookahs or 11 cigarettes per day.

Researchers noticed that the level of benzene was double in the urine of those who took hookah when compared to those who smoked cigarettes. They measured the presence of carbon monoxide in their breath over 24 hours and noticed the levels of concentration were 2.5 times higher in those who smoked hookah when compared to those who smoked cigarettes.

Reports according to Nature World News state that smoking hookah for one hour consists of inhaling 100-200 times more volume of smoke than is inhaled from a single cigarette.

"In addition to delivering toxic substances from the charcoal and tobacco, the heat causes chemical reactions in the mixture which produce toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Some PAHs are highly carcinogenic and can cause lung cancer, Jacob said in a press statement.

The study was published in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.