Hookah Pipes

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Middle Eastern men have smoked hookah pipes for hundreds of years. Now, this form of smoking is becoming popular in the U.S., especially among young people. A hookah is a water pipe that holds tobacco. The tobacco is often mixed with honey, molasses, or dried fruit to give flavoring to the smoke. When a person inhales on a hose attached to the hookah, the smoke is filtered through water in the base. Passing the smoke through the water partially filters tar and small particles from the smoke.

Because the pipe filters the tobacco smoke, hookahs are advertised as safer than cigarettes. In fact, hookah smoke contains levels of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar that are as high or higher than those found in the smoke from many filtered cigarettes. Several types of cancer, as well as gum disease, have been linked to hookah smoking.

Additional Information on Hookah Pipes:

Publications

1.   Fact Sheet: Hookahs - This fact sheet from the CDC lists facts and statistics about the health effects, estimated usage, high-risk populations, and manufacturers of hookahs.

   http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/hookahs.htm

2. Hookah Smoking: Is it Safer than Smoking Cigarettes? (Copyright © MFMER) - This publication compares the current research on the safety of smoking hookah pipes and smoking cigarettes and concludes that smoke from a hookah pipe may be just as harmful as cigarette smoke.

   http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hookah/AN01265

3. Hooked on Hookah: What You Don't Know Can Kill You (Copyright © The Regents of the University of California) - This article describes hookah smoke chemistry and highlights facts related to hookah smoking and diseases.

   http://www.trdrp.org/publications/newsletters/2006/706nwsltr.pdf#page=2

4. Questions About Smoking, Tobacco, and Health (Copyright © ACS) - This publication answers common questions about health and tobacco use. It provides information on the health risks of smoking, nicotine, the connection between smoking and cancer, the harmful chemicals cigarettes contain and how they affect the lungs.

   http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_2x_Questions_About_Smoking_Tobac...

5.   Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs, and Recommended Actions by Regulators (Copyright © WHO) - This brochure describes what waterpipes are, how they are used, the health effects of smoking with waterpipes and the regional and global patterns of waterpipe smoking.

   http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_interaction/tobreg/Waterpipe%20recommendation_F...

Organizations

1.   National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS
2.   Office on Smoking and Health, NCCDPHP, CDC, HHS
3. American Lung Association

= Indicates Federal Resources

Content last updated March 19, 2008.