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im glad. he can ask me anything, in fact i have much to ask him. like- does the water really filter anything? how much nicotine is in a standard bowl of shisha, in regards to cigarettes? a comparison to the contents of both smoke from cigarettes and hookah smoke would be nice, too. im allf or this.
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Huh, this is interesting. I live in Richmond (Henrico County specifically), not so far from VCU, and one of my friends I smoke with is a student there.Dr. Eissenberg, if you'd like to talk to anyone local I'm sure we could arrange something.
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Buford:
I may very well take you up on that offer.  I hope to run the same survey here in Richmond (out of Sahara, which is near the VCU campus).  And, in the future, I hope to invite waterpipe users into my lab to smoke waterpipe while we measure how it effects them -- for this, we will pay cash. 
So, stay tuned!
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[quote name='Eissenberg']Buford:
I may very well take you up on that offer.  I hope to run the same survey here in Richmond (out of Sahara, which is near the VCU campus).  And, in the future, I hope to invite waterpipe users into my lab to smoke waterpipe while we measure how it effects them -- for this, we will pay cash.   
So, stay tuned![/quote]
What? Get paid to smoke the machine? Count me in!! Oh, wait... I live in Louisiana... See, nothing good comes from this southern oddessy I'm on.
MR Bubble
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Hi everyone:
I have 28 responses so far to the survey.  With the large membership here, I was hoping that, in the next month or so, I'd have several hundred.  Please encourage your fellow waterpipe users to respond to the survey.  They can be guests on the board, and still connect to the link!
Thanks to everyone who has participated so far, and thanks to all of you for allowing me to post the survey.
Yours,
Tom E.
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I have a couple of things to say.I respect Dr. Eissenberg, I have chatted with him in the past. I like his work and he is observing the finest qualities of a scientist and dispassionate observer, he is as far as I can tell, a consummate professional.The problem is not the scientists who do the studies impartially. The problem is the whackoes (whackos? whacks?) who take the scientific evidence, or even a lack of evidence, and form it into a rabid war cry. I have, as a manufacturer, always put a strongly worded warning, far in excess of federal requirements for cigarettes and since warnings are not required of pipe tobacco, far in excess of requirements for pipe tobacco. I believe that it should be known that hookahs are bad for you. Scientific evidence doesn't need to tell us what we already know and add potential fuel to the fire for activists. That's just my opinion.
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[quote name='dikydave']got sketchy towards the end.[/quote]What do you mean sketchy? The drug related questions? While this forum tries to de-emphasize any connections with illegal drug use, the fact remains that tobacco is a drug, and a lot of people who use one are more likely to try the other. I don't mean in a "gateway drug" or "this leads to that" sort of way, but simply because there are sinilaruties. It reems to me that he is trying to find out what connection there might be. Or the absence of a connection.The part I thought was strange was the section before that regarding widespread use. I know my own usage, but have no idea what percentage of the population smokes water pipes. I tried to skip those questions, but there was no option for "I don't know, thats what you are supposed to tell me after correlating the data from a survey".
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Hi Everyone:
We are up to 51 people completing the survey, and I really appreciate everyone's time and effort.  I also want to thank folks for their comments -- those at the end of the survey and those that are left here in this thread.  Already I've learned that the survey can be improved in many ways, and in future efforts I'll be sure to implement the suggestions that I've recieved.  I cannot change this survey very easily -- all amendments require review by my university's Institutional Review Board, and that would take 2-3 weeks at best.  I'm hoping we'll be over 100 responses by then!
Also, I want to reassure those who are worried that the purpose of the survey is *not* to make anyone look bad.  I appreciate Tangiers' point -- that there are folks out there who might use the results for nefarious ends -- but those folks will find their ammunition with or without this survey.  Also, I do want to clarify that I think each of the questions on the survey are important -- sometimes the perceptions regarding a behavior can be more important than the reality.
Thanks again, and please encourage your waterpipe-using friends to respond to the survey.
Yours,
Tom E.
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I finally got around to completing the survay, and I have to say I was happy with what I saw. I like the idea of a scientist who is not out to quickly find the answers he needs to judge and put down hookah smokers, and who is just doing honest research.
I agree fully with Tangiers, and what Mush has been saying forever, that hookah isn't a healthy alternative to ciggs, and you shouldn't fool yourself by thinking that smoking hookah is a safe hobby. But instead you need to understand that hookah may not be healthy, but its just something we do because we enjoy it.
I look forward to any answers Eissenberg can provide for us in the future with his new research, and I also hope to hear many other avid hookah fans will participate in his survay.
More power to you Dr. Eissenberg
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Great Yashman, I myself mentioned that the shisha is nowhere near addicting, but I myself consider it more harmful than cigarettes (per ammount smoked).
I love  to smoke (only hookah shisha)  usually 3 times a day, but with quick lighting coals, and who knows what else  is in it I imagine its more dangerous, but  its great stuff. I don't smoke every sabbath, each Jewish holiday, some which are 2, 3 days  and 2 holidays  are 9 days , so I don't feel a craving that is out of control, just a wonderfully enjoyable unhealthy and expensive pastime!
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UPDATE ON THE SURVEY
Hi everyone!
We have 83 responses to the survey so far, and many very helpful comments about it.  Also. I've gotten some requests to notify you of the results, and I promise that I will do that.
I hope to close the survey at the end of June, but I also hope to have many more responses before I close it.  What that means is, I hope that those of you who have filled out the survey will ask your friends who also use hookahs to also fill it out (hookah users only, please). 
Tangiers, and those others of you who also run hookah cafes or who are affiliated with online retailers, please feel free to direct your patrons to the link. 
Please, please, do not fill out the survey more than once. 
Again, I thank you all for your responses, and I promise that, in early July, I will (with MR Bubble's permission) post some results here at HookahForum.com.
Thanks very much for your help!
Tom E.
PS:  Yes, TJPerry, I am running the same survey in Sahara, in Richmond.  Although the Sahara group likely differs from the online group in some ways, I need all the responses that I can get in order for the survey to have some reliability. 
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  • 3 weeks later...
Yes, I'm very curious to see both results and conclusions, if any.  I took the survey before it was closed, and thought it covered hookah smoking with noticably less prejudice than I get from many people who are uneducated about the hookah and smoking it...
 
 
[quote name='Eissenberg']Hi everyone:
I'd like to thank everyone who responded to the survey.  It is now closed.  I'll post a brief summary of results ASAP.
Thanks again!
Tom E.[/quote]
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Dear Members of HookahForum.com:As many of you know, I have been
conducting a survey of hookah users on thisform for the last several weeks. 
I would like to thank MR Bubble and theother powers-that-be at
HookahForum.com for allowing me to conduct thesurvey here, and the 100+
people who took the time to respond to the survey.I very much value your
time, and appreciate your help.Several of you asked about the results of
the survey.  I'd like to provideyou with a comprehensive report, but, given
other commitments, that willlikely take me several months to write.  So,
instead, I thought I'd give youa brief description of some highlights. 
Then, when the formal report isready, I'll provide you with a PDF.  I hope
that works for you all.Here is the summary of highlights, written in my
driest scientific prose(sometimes percentages won't add up to 100 because
some people chose not torespond to all items, or due to rounding, or both .
. .):A total of 118 participants completed the survey (78% between 18-24
years,11% women, 9.3% non-white, and 89% U.S. citizens).  Of the 118
respondents,11% reported using at least once/month, 39.8% reported using at
leastonce/week, and 21.2% reported using daily.  In the past 30 days,
6.8%reported using a waterpipe 1 or fewer times, 55.1% reported using
2-10times, and 37.3% reported using 11 or more times (72% thought they would
beusing waterpipes with the same or greater frequency in the next 5
years).Seventeen percent of respondents reported that they were "hooked on
hookah".Eighty-two percent of respondents reported waterpipe use episodes
longerthan 30 minutes in duration, 89.8% own a waterpipe themselves, and
86.4%know someone else who owns a waterpipe.  While most waterpipe use is
social,32.2% of respondents reported using a waterpipe alone at least once
in thepast 30 days.  About two-thirds of respondents felt that cigarettes
are moreharmful than waterpipe (65%); more thought that cigarettes are
moreaddictive than waterpipe (80.1%).  Regarding marijuana, 70% reported
nothaving used it in the past 30 days (28% no lifetime use, 18% no past
yearuse, and 24% no past 30-day use).  Regarding cigarettes, 78% reported
noregular use (31% no past year use, 25% no past 30-day use, and 22%
reported1-5 cigarettes in the past 30-days).  Thus, waterpipe users exhibit
a rangeof use frequencies, from less-than-monthly to monthly to weekly, to
daily.The majority does not use marijuana or cigarettes, or uses these
itemsinfrequently.Again, thanks to all who
responded!Yours,Tom E.
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  • 1 month later...
Although I attempted to do your survey quite some time ago, I was unable to. However, I have a quick comment about hookah studies that I'd like to get out there. I've done a bit of reading into the studies cited in the hookah wikipedia page [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah[/url] that point to the scope of negative side-effects involved with smoking hookah. However, from what I have read in the studies and in the abstracts of the studies cited within them (unfortunately I could not locate full-text) never seem to discuss the composition of the water-pipe tobacco used in the studies. One study acknowledged the fact that there were different kinds of tobacco (ranging from molasses, a tobacco paste, or simply dried tobacco) but did not discuss which was used when spewing off information concerning chemical percentages found within the smoke.So I guess what I'm saying is I feel that may be a very important piece of the puzzle, what it is that they are actually using in the bowl for their testing.I'm not defending hookah to the end where I feel its safe (I'm well aware that it isnt) however, I cant help but feel there may be certain biases in studies that dont explicitly mention these details.
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