Use of hookah is on the rise among youngsters. A growing body of evidence suggests that these children are experimenting with this form of tobacco.
Hookahs are water pipes that are used to smoke specially made tobacco that comes in different flavors, such as apple, mint, cherry, chocolate, coconut, licorice, cappuccino, and watermelon.1,2
Although many users think it is less harmful, hookah smoking has many of the same health risks as cigarette smoking.
Hookah is also called narghile, argileh, shisha, hubble-bubble, and goza
Of the 1000 subjects surveyed from four public schools in Indore, 76 were potential subjects. Mean age of the sample was 15.3 years. In the total population, 18.42% were users of both hookah and cigarettes.
It was found that 10.6% of hookah users were from 9 th grade, 13.2% from 10 th grade, 48.6% from 11 th grade, and 27.6% were from 12 th grade. The mean age at initiation of smoking the hookah was 15.7 years.
The hookah users reported that they first learned of hookah use from friends (63.2%) followed by siblings (22.4%) and relatives (14.5%). More than 96.1% knew about the hookah lounges in their locality, and most of them smoked at these lounges (85.5%).
Gender-wise, male users of hookah were two times more in number than female users.
People who smoke Hookah, 85.5% did not know about the tobacco content of hookah.
15.85% believed that the hookah was significantly safer than the cigarette
Hookah smoke that you inhale can contain 36 times more tar than cigarette smoke, 15 times the carbon monoxide, and 70% more nicotine than one cigarette.
Similar to cigarettes, hookah is also related to various preventable diseases including coronary heart disease, adverse pulmonary effects, and cancers of the lung, mouth, and bladder. Additionally, hookah smoke contains many of the same carcinogens and heavy metals as cigarette smoke. Longer hookah smoking sessions combined with increased smoke volume makes it potentially more dangerous than cigarettes.
A typical 1-hour-long hookah smoking session involves inhaling 100-200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. Due to the mode of smoking-including frequency of puffing, depth of inhalation, and length of the smoking session-hookah smokers may absorb higher concentrations of the toxins found in cigarette smoke
