• 3/30/2005
  • Tempe, AR
  • Summer Robertson
  • www.asuwebdevil.com

It’s a sign of the times. Kids are getting a lot more street smart. When they see an advertisement that reads: “Free money!” they begin to ask questions. The majority of us know it’s just another ploy from some not-so-creative advertisers. The same goes with movies. If someone tells you to see a movie about which you know nothing, you’re going to ask why.

So why aren’t the same questions being asked when it involves something more dangerous, say, hookah? Sure, opponents of smoking have televised ads that tell you to say no. But most of the time, they are so short that they don’t say why. Or they will tell you the same old information: Tobacco may cause cancer, discoloration of the teeth, etc.

But there’s a reason to say no. So before you go out and buy your own hookah, perhaps you should take a few things into account.

Hookah and shisha have been around for ages, originating in the Middle East. Because it is relatively new to the U.S., there have been next to no studies done on it. A lot of people are under the misconception hookah is healthier than cigarettes.

Although hookah waters down tobacco, it doesn’t water down the effects tobacco has on your body. Your lung tissue will still be damaged, and you will be more susceptible to smoking-related diseases such as lung, throat and mouth cancer.

Another misconception is that hookah contains far less tobacco and nicotine than cigarettes because the smoke is filtered through water. This is also wrong. In a study done by Dr. H. A. Hajar (a name more familiar in Europe than here) from the Office of the Minister of Health in Qatar, it was found that 10 grams of treacled tobacco (with molasses) — the average amount in a bowl of hookah — had nicotine equivalent to nearly 50 cigarettes.

So whether you suck on a hose every day or once a week, whether you have a whole bowl to yourself, half a bowl or share with a small group, you could still be taking in the same amount of nicotine as a regular cigarette smoker.

In Arabia, a study found narghile (hookah) has an even higher amount of carbon monoxide than cigarettes, by 15 percent to 20 percent. Carbon monoxide is a highly poisonous gas and is the same toxin released from burning gasoline.

When inhaled, carbon monoxide replaces the oxygen in your body that the hemoglobin in your blood carries. When your heart doesn’t receive enough oxygen, it speeds up to try to make up for it. If carbon monoxide is still inhaled, it can lead to breathing difficulty, cardiac trauma, brain damage, coma and death.

If you’re one of those “it won’t happen to me” people, this information probably won’t faze you — not until you’re in the hospital on a breathing machine being told your options are running out and your chemotherapy bill has exceeded $70,000.

If you are one of those people who likes to rationalize everything — telling yourself you don’t do it enough for it to be harmful — this information probably won’t hit you until 20 years from now when you’re married with kids, coming out of your annual checkup and being told they found a spot on your lungs roughly the size of a nickel that looks like cancer.

These situations are real, and whether you think they will happen to you won’t change anything. Hookah is no better than cigarettes, whether you choose to believe it or not.

So before you succumb to peer pressure, before you read articles in The State Press that solicit buying your own hookah, before you get caught up in the most popular new import from overseas, try looking before you leap.

It’s not as healthy as people say. It’s not an alternative to cigarettes. And it’s not going to leave your body without harming it. If you want to dig your own grave, that’s fine. But at least now you’ll do it knowingly.