PersianPride Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Just read recently that smoking using household aluminium foil is fairly harmful, since high aluminium in the body can lead to a variety of health problems. Personally I use the purpose made hookah foils and I wonder is it any different to the household foil or are we just paying for the convenience?Also how do those charcoal screen work for people? How does it effect the smoking experience in comparison to the old punctured foil option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yashman19 Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 I used to be a hardcore foil fan as I wasn't having any sucess with screens, but I eventually got the hang of them. They tend to turn people off because people who are used to foil set it up the same for foil, and tend to burn the hell out of the tobacco. I need to use less heat with my screen, and pack my bowl a tad differently, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, theres no turning back.I'd say atleast buy a screen (their dirt cheap), and learn to use it. It's so nice to not have to wrap the foil on and poke those holes. I can get my hookah set up and ready to smoke in half the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PersianPride Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 So are you saying that with the screen you tend to use less charcoal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yashman19 Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Yeah, the metal screens tend to absorb and conduct a lot more heat than when using foil, which in turn helps cook the tobacco even more. Using a bit less heat, packing the bowl slightly tighter and leaving a bigger gap between the top of the tobacco and the screen seems to work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PersianPride Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 In case some people here are into the details:[url="http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/water/alhealth_e.htm"]http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/water/alhealth_e.htm[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PersianPride Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 [quote name='Yashman19']Yeah, the metal screens tend to absorb and conduct a lot more heat than when using foil, which in turn helps cook the tobacco even more. Using a bit less heat, packing the bowl slightly tighter and leaving a bigger gap between the top of the tobacco and the screen seems to work for me.[/quote] Hmmm i might give it a try next time I have to order some stuff off the internet. Not having to poke those damn holes every time i want to smoke is very tempting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvansLight Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 yea as yash said, its diffrent then foil with the heat. But the screens are awesome. I can get my qt set up to go in under 4 minutes now, which is friggin awesome.But warning, he isnt lying when he says they hold the heat. Right before i left for my vacation, i was trying to get my QT going good, hadnt even had the coal on 30 seconds, found i didnt have the bowl packed right, went to take off the screen and got the crap burned out my pinky. Now i can usually grab the bowl directly even after a full smoke session, but that screen hurts :PI tend to leave mine a bit lose and then just use the tongs to pull it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Foil is more traditional Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownZero Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Well I don't think anyone really knows the facts about the foil and the affects on one's health. It's the same with people trying to figure out whether or not hookah smoking is more harmful than cigarette smoking - Who knows! heh Right now, everything is opinionated.Screens are very useful. I barely stopped using my screen about 2 weeks ago because my screen was getting all nasty looking. I'll eventually buy another, no one in town sells them since all the owners favor foil. I have found that it's easier to tame Tangiers with foil. With the screen it did get hotter and made Tangiers a little harsh. So with tangiers, I will never go back to a screen... with everything else I've tried, I'm not biased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Arik: putting the coal directly on top of your tobacco, Now THAT's Traditional! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 i double layer my tinfoil to prevent any harshness or the tobacco to burn faster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuschultz Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 I use a single layer of standard kitchen foil, not the heavy duty stuff. I haven't had any major problems. I use the Fumari coals currently. What I normally do is get 4 squares red hot, put 3 on the bowl to get it cooking, then drop it down to 2 coals. When those two start to die out, I move the other two up to the bowl. Normally once I finish all the coals out, my bowl is spent anyway. This method works great for me on my Egyptian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1m9x Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 The screen that came with my hookah from hookahcompany.com doesn't fit my bowl. Anyone else have that problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arik Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Well i only use 3kings so i cant use that method Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1m9x Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Yeah, i really like that bowl you have with the screen and wind protector. I can't get it here and i probably wont be going back to the states for at least 6 months so foil will have to do. Also i think that the bowl that i have is a bit larger than most and that could be the reason why the screen doesn't fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Well, cou could always use it with the tabs still sticking OUT..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Aluminum foil is completely safe. That article mainly deals with using aluminum sulfate in water treatment. It has been attributed to increasing alzheimer's rates, whereas in certain areas that use aluminum in water treatment, the rates of alzheimer's is normal. It seems to be poorly linked. More to the point, as I brought up in a previous thread, the toxic effects of iron are far worse than the toxic effects of aluminum. So, if healthfulness is your issue, foil is much better than a screen. If aluminum poses a risk, which I don't think it does, then the iron in screens poses a greater risk. There are a number of crackpots who, by the same logic that second hand smoke is bad, are trying to prove that aluminum causes any number of diseases. The world is full of articles we can read that seem scientific, but have no hard scientific basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Listen to him, he's pre-med. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Could be, doesn't matter. Doctors are not oracles, they can also have wrong opinions and misinformation.From Wikipedia: It has been suggested that aluminium is a cause of Alzheimer's disease, as some brain plaques have been found to contain the metal. Research in this area has been inconclusive; aluminium accumulation may be a consequence of the Alzheimer's damage, not the cause. In any event, if there is any toxicity of aluminium it must be via a very specific mechanism, since total human exposure to the element in the form of naturally occurring clay in soil and dust is enormously large over a lifetime.and: Alzheimer's Risk FactorsRisk factors * Advancing age * ApoE epsilon 4 genotype * Head injury * Poor cardiovascular health (including smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol) * Exposure to heavy metals, including aluminum and copper, is a proposed but not yet widely-accepted risk factor.From the Merck Index, "[aluminum]...doesn't vaporize, even at high temperatures.". If it doesn't vaporize, how is it getting into our bodies? The sheer amount of dirt people eat is astounding, accidently of course and in that there is aluminum. Not to mention its use in water treatment. The only widely accepted health risks Aluminum poses is a hazard from breathing the dust, like in a metal working plant or whatever. Not aluminum foil.Its real easy to come up with something we should be worried about. Nobody ever got famous or noticed saying "Everything is allright." Its the same logic unfortunately as Penn Jilete's elephant idea and I have modified...can you prove that aluminum is safe? Can you prove you aren't a crack-head? Its an easy charge to make, proving its truth would be easy, but disproving it would not be. The logic that Aluminum is less safe than copper or iron so it should be avoided is absurd. There is no proof, it is controvertible, so it should be disregarded.I am reminded of some wacko group that used to get alot of press. They started out by saying fast food is bad for you. Then they went and said Italian food is bad for you and went from genre of food to genre of food, basically saying they're all bad...what are we supposed to eat? When we do in aluminum, then what? Copper? Then Iron? Aluminum is perfectly safe. If they come out with more information that is actually based on experiments and statistics rather than finger pointing and innuendo, I might change my mind. Additionally, Alzheimer's although more recognized in modern times has existed much longer than the metallurgy required for aluminum production and extraction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macho555 Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Wow. Thats some serious rantage right there. o_o At any rate, I've never used foil. My hookahs always came with a screen, and I've always had such success with them that I never bothered to stop using them. That may be half assed on my part for never exploring, but I figure if it isnt broken, don't fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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