Harmful Hookah: Confidence of Philistine Folks and Doubts

Hookah today is popular everywhere. Including in Russia. They became part of the "menu" of most bars and clubs. Almost all smokers are familiar with the hookah. Is the hookah harmful? What do scientists, doctors and philistines say about this? Opinions are very ambiguous, often in many respects radically different. Let's try to consider some that seem most convincing and supported by facts.

The opinion of the townsfolk, true, American

In America, which loudly declares its intention to become a non-smoking country, the circles of the intelligentsia are most supportive of smoking hookah. For the most part, these are college students. They quite consciously to the question "Is the hookah harmful?" Answer as follows. "Smoking hookah is not as harmful as smoking cigarettes." In it, the smoke, before it enters the lungs, passes through the flask and cools. To that they argue that from hookah smoking pleasure is more than from ordinary cigarettes and even a tube.

Scientific background

American scientists (Virginia) have their own point of view on the extent to which a hookah can influence the body. As a result of the research, they came to the conclusion that, in fact, the effect of the hookah is different from the idea that ordinary people make up about it at the household level. Is the hookah harmful to health? According to scientists, no less than cigarettes. It just as helps to assimilate the body's toxins: carbon monoxide, tar, nicotine. Moreover, smoking hookah is accompanied by large and long puffs, which provides the smoker with smoke for a "session" of 20 and 100 times more than a cigarette. However, the most curious conclusion ...

On the other hand, the practical observation of hookah smokers has not proved that the fascination with this exotic entertainment leads to the appearance of serious diseases. Dependence on nicotine in a group of "experimental" appeared very quickly. Of the people who said they tried to smoke at the beginning of the research just a couple of times in their life, 43% became permanent smokers in less than a year. For comparison, 20% of the newcomers announced the purchase of nicotine addiction within a month. Is it harmful to smoke a hookah? Definitely.

Results of chemical research

Laboratory studies of hookah indicate that the filtering of smoke in it does give the result: harmful substances are reduced to some extent (but 80-95% of nicotine, phenols, solid particles, polycyclenic hydrocarbons, benzopyrene, etc., still reaches the lungs). The filter slightly reduces the carcinogenic potential of the smoke, clearing it of acrolein and acetaldehyde, harmful to the alveoli. Since the hookah does not burn, there are no harmful carcinogens. These facts seem to be reassuring.

Immediately give the results of another study conducted to find out if the hookah is harmful. K. Makaron, studying only hookah smokers, and not mixed, as in most experiments, came to the conclusion that his smoking increases the content of the cotonus in the blood. She also admits that the filter detoxifies some toxic smoke substances, but claims that many of them remain unchanged. Therefore, she states that, on the whole, water has an insignificant effect on the neutralization of the effect of smoke, that its harm is absolutely no less than that of cigarettes.

For objectivity, it is worth saying that most hookah smokers are smokers casual. They usually do not have tobacco or nicotine addiction. For them, the main thing is aroma, pleasant and unusual taste, relaxing atmosphere. For many, this exotic is generally a tribute to fashion. Such hookah lovers actually smoke and do not breathe. They have enough taste and olfactory sensations. Such smokers are not addicted to addiction. Is it only in the so-called public: it's cool and fashionable. Is the hookah harmful for them? Hardly ever. Just do not get carried away more than this degree.

In general: smoking for health is harmful, whether it's cigarettes, a pipe, a cigar or a hookah.