Lighting coals and smoking hookah inside the house with children

[Concerned father]

Hello, I'm not a hookah smoker but a concerned father. My children's mother lights her coals and smoke's inside the house with the children home. I don't know exactly how dangerous this is for the children's health or anyone's health but what I have read it's not that good. I thought I would ask people who actually smoke hookah. Occasionally my children complain about headaches and was wondering if the smoke or Co is the cause or contributing. It may not be as much an issue with light smokers but she smokes 8 to 10 times a day. She also suffers from headaches and vomiting on occasion which may be signs of Co poisoning. Is that possible from smoking so much? Should I be concerned for her health as well as the children's?

[Skoozle]

8 to 10 times a day? When does she sleep or shower?

I am also a father and I smoke hookah in the house when my kids are home.  The kids have usually gone to bed upstairs and I smoke 2 floors down in the basement. I keep the bathroom exhaust fan running the whole time and usually until the next morning. 

Carbon Monoxide would be my primary concern. I have set off the CO detector a couple of times in about 10 years. It hasn't happened recently. 

The CO levels in your blood become elevated when you smoke hookah or otherwise breath in CO. The hookah coals produce CO which is present in the hookah smoke as well as in the environment where the coals are burning. You wouldn't cook with a charcoal grill in your house, would you? Of course that's not a fair comparison, but I'm sure you get the point. 

When we have a party, my kids as well as other kids are welcome in the basement while we have a hookah going. Neither I nor other parents are concerned about second hand smoke due to the different way hookah tobaccos are smoked compared to cigarettes, cigars and pipes. 

With that being said, if you have concerns about second hand smoke, don't let me change your mind. I'm no expert or medical professional.

I don't know you and you don't know me and I don't know the whole story about what's going on in your house, but based on your post, here are my thoughts. 

If I thought I was doing anything to harm my children, I would stop. Your wife should either smoke outside, chew tobacco or get on the patch. What she wants to do is less important that the well being of your children. 

When I start a hookah, I'm going to smoke for at least an hour and a half. Sometimes I go 6 hours. Applying that to your wife's 8-10 times a day, that's 12-60 hours a day. I understand that that math doesn't make sense. With that frequency, I'm guessing that each time she smokes is much shorter than the amount of time that I smoke. Even if you are counting each round of coals as a "time", that's probably, conservatively 4-6 hours a day. I usually smoke once a week, sometimes twice.

When I do smoke for 6 hours, I will notice that my heart rate increases significantly when I go up stairs. The CO is preventing my blood from carrying enough oxygen to support even very mild activity. A headache is not uncommon when I smoke that much.

I wonder how much time she has left to be a mother or a wife after all of the smoking? If that's literally all she does, maybe hookah isn't the biggest problem in your house.

The bottom line is that your children are having headaches which is the body's way of signaling trouble. Kind of like the "check engine light" for people. There can be many causes but it needs to be addressed. Smoking hookah in the house would be the obvious place to start solving the headache problem. 

[Skoozle]

Paste the following in the search box:

"So I Bought A Smokerlyzer"

Lots to read and a bit of idle conversation but I think there is some valuable information for you in that thread. 

Good luck. Take care of those babies. 

[Stuie]

I was going to respond, but I echo Skoozle 100% I smoke when my kids are home but I continue to educate them on all things, I am ususally in a different room than them, but they come in some time.