Is Hookah Smoke Worse Than Cigarettes?

[ASUSEAN1]

gotta die of something..

lol so true.

[pavlakos]

of course smoking is not natural and therefore harmful to the human body, but hookah never reaches the point of combustion so many carcinogens are either never or very slightly released. also many of the chemicals and additives found in cigarettes are non existant in moassel. they are simply there for the sole purpose of making an addictive product to keep customers like myself,lol. the water filtration thing is mostly myth due to the fact that most chemicals in the tobaco and other flavors are not water soluble. your water changes color mostly from tar and the juices in moassel, not the harmful chemicals. nicotine is naturally found in tobacco but there is much less tobacco than in cigs because they add more. in fact most brands will have less than even raw tobacco because most brands use washed tobacco.

[ZenSilk]

"" My friends at work and I who are all into hookah found several articles in which they stated that the worse thing about cigarettes is...... The paper! Sure, the tar that they add to cigarettes is pretty bad too, but the absolute worst thing in the cigarette is the bloody paper they're wrapped in. Which does make some kind of historical sense. Hookah and pure tobacco (Native Americans) have been smoked for centuries with seemingly no historical evidence that it causes lung problems. That could be that documentation didn't exist to show any correlation, but it could also be that tobacco has become deadly because of the new way it's been used. Loaded with tar and wrapped in paper that produces CO2 as it burns. I'm never going to say that inhaling anything but pure air is anything but bad for you. But compared to cigiarettes, hookah is definitely many steps above.

'Rani ""

This i found from BohoWildChild. All i have to say is, Amen!

[erufiku]

From the side of Gauloises Blondes (Blue):

Toxic emissions/unit: Tar 13 - 34mg, Nicotine 1.0-2.5mg, Carbon Monoxide 14-32 mg, Formaldehyde 0.042-0.12mg, Hydrogen Cyanide 0.18-0.45 mg, Benzene 0.044-0.092mg

Everything after CO I don't have an idea about, but Cyanide doesn't really sound too encouraging.

[amnite]

This may help:

"TOBACCO MYTH: Tobacco causes lung cancer, heart and blood vessel disease, heart attack, and naturally diabetes. We are constantly being told of the hundreds of thousands being killed each year.

FACT: This is one of those big myths that has a life of it own. Anyone who researches early Canadian history is aware that the Couriers des Bois and Voyagers all smoked Indian tobacco quite heavily. Distance is measured in the number of pipes they smoked rather than miles. If you do genealogy research you will note that most of these early traders lived long lives. England & Wales have the highest rate of lung cancer for men. They also smoke the highest sugar content tobacco at 17%. The French smoke 2/3's as many cigarettes per capita as Englishmen but only have 1/3 the cancer rate and their tobacco sugar rate is 2%. Don't forget they also have the 2nd lowest heart disease rate in the world. Americans smoke more cigarettes per capita than the British but the lung cancer rate is 1/2 and the sugar content is 10%. In Russia, China, Formosa and other countries where cigarettes are made, they use the air dried process. These countries are unable to find any correlation at all between smoking and lung cancer. The Asian process for tobacco is similar to the process the Canadian Indians used. Chinese cigarettes are low in sugar, low in nicotine & tar content. The high content cigarettes are flue-cured vs. air-dried. Americans use a blend of air-dried and flue-cured. The tobacco industry artificially increases the tars and nicotine's. The refining process also adds the sugar, nicotine and tar to give tobacco a bad rap. This is not to say that the intentionally doctored tobacco is safe but we should focus on the evil practice and outlaw it rather than continue dealing with symptoms.

It is unlikely that the tobacco industry will return to the ancient air dry method of curing tobacco as its too expensive but new methods will be developed. There are about 60 cancer-causing agents in tobacco but nitrosamines are considered the most dangerous. These agents are formed by bacterial activity on the tobacco leaves as they dry and turn brown during the curing process. The major problem is the tobacco loses its hit effect and addictive effect when the agent is removed."

Is shisha tobacco air-dried or flue-cured? (sorry I dont know the differences) Edited December 7, 2007 by amnite

[wisp]

I smoked cigarettes before I started smoking hookah (still do, even though they taste like ass they're a lot less hassle) and hookah certainly doesn't effect me as badly. With cigarettes I can feel it when I smoke, it's hot, heavy, and makes my chest tight. By comparison smoking hookah feels like I'm just breathing in air. And I don't wake up hacking up stuff the next morning.