Thursday, November 26, 2009

Education

Think Twice Before You Hookah Up

May 02, 2007 02:35 PM ET | Alison Go | Permanent Link | Print

Mint hookah may taste so fresh and so clean, but lung doctors—who are concerned about its increasing popularity with college students—are starting to dish the dirt on the tasty tobacco. The Daily Aztec at San Diego State University reports that a standard "head" of hookah tobacco has nicotine levels comparable to 70 cigarettes' worth and that smoking a hookah for 45 minutes is worse than smoking 21 cigarettes.

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Reader Comments

WOW

Ok, so during my usual random internet surfing today i started stumbling across these hookah articles, and frankly this is retarded. Hi, my name is Fred and i am a sales rep for an electronic cigarette company named Quantumcig. i have smoked hookah for quite a few years now, as well as pretty much everything else that can be smoked. So i have decided to go to a few more of these sites so that hopefully i can spread some knowledge. first off, hookah smoke cannot be compared to cigarette smoke because you arent inhaling 4000+ chemicals that cigarette companies intentionally add to the tobacco to make their cigarettes more addictive. that is NOT to say it is at all good for you, just that its MUCH better. from the 1950's to now, the amount of smokers have dropped considerably, yet the amount of cigarette related deaths has risen more than 10%. why? because cigarette companies are adding more shit! no secret there, they want people to be more hooked on their product, and they dont give a crap who it hurts.hookah doesnt have any of those additives, so its not as bad. YES, hookah is bad for you. so are cigars, cigarettes, marijuana, crack, and (yep, im sayin it) electronic cigarettes. People seem to miss this in every argument about smoking, and on both sides of the argument: your body isnt built to smoke ANYTHING! its all bad. and before anyone gets pissy towards me, remember- im a smoker! i enjoy smoking, and i make the conscious decision every day to do it anyways. im just pointing out the facts here people. YES, hookah STILL CAUSES CANCER! tobacco itself naturally has carcinogens, as well as nicotine. the reason there is a lower percentage in hookah is because the tobacco is diluted by the fruit molasses. now, let me address a seemingly popular myth that hookah doesnt have tar. i realize the box says it people but anyone who says it like that is an idiot. sorry. tar, by definition, as a resinous residue created by burning various plants (tobacco, marijuana). despite your ideas about not inhaling, you are still inhaling a portion of the smoke and therefore loading your lungs with TAR and making you more susceptible to lung cancer. however, because you do not have all of the horrible chemicals, you are much less likely to contract lung cancer, as well as any of the other diseases from cigarettes. and maybe its just me, but the anti-hookah movement sounds alot like the anti-electronic cigarette movement. now, lets think- who would be the most opposed to specifically smoking hookah? most anti smokers dont care whats BETTER for you, because they know its ALL BAD. so who hurts the most by people switching to hookah? the same people who hurt from people switching to e-cigs: cigarette companys and pharmaceutical companies! both of which- guess what- are known to back the main organization responible for alerting hazardous substances, the FDA! wow, how bout that. maybe people should do just a bit of research before taking a side. hmmmm....

-Fred

Lindsay's Lie'n alright. US News and What Report? Please!

This is an Onion Network style spoof right? Tell us no one is actually believing this crap. This is so absolutely ludicrous, it's scary that anyone would be listening. Sorry there Linday Lyon (and no, we don't believe that is your real name - most certainly you don't work for 'US NEWS AND WORLD'), but you and the WHO have obviously been smoking somthing other than sisha or cigarettes. Here are some real facts:

All major shisha manufacturers have nicotine listed at 0.5% and tar listed at 0.0%. That's 0% as in NO tar.

Pack of Marlboro Full Flavor 100's Filter: 16 miligrams of tar and 1.2 miligrams of nicotine (From PhilipMorris.com).

In a REAL STUDY of cigarettes: "Among the findings, Marlboro had as much as 9.6 percent freebase nicotine; Camel contained 2.7 percent; Winston had 5 percent to 6.2 percent; and Gauloises Blondes was found to have 5.7 percent to 7.5 percent."

Source: "'Freebase' Nicotine Thought to Make Cigarettes More Addictive" 30 July. 2003. www.nacsonline.com (26 August. 2004)).

No tar and way less nicotine, as none of the shisha companies are insidiously adding nicotine to produce an addiction. Anyone who has ever smoked a hookah knows that it's not only easy to stop smoking the hookah for long periods of time, it's essential. The pipe's just too damn big to carry around and light up everytime you're jonesing for a smoke. So put that in your hookah and smoke it!

wrong facts about hookah again

tobacco used for hookah is washed, the nicotine level is very small. its nothing like a cigarette. hookah tobacco and cigarette tobacco are prepared much differently. smoking hokah tobacco does NOT equal 21 cigarettes, this staement is false and should not of been posted witout actual facts. learn the process of how hookah tobacco is made and you will see for yourself. better yet, smoke a hookah, the affects are different than what a cigarette gives.

the real issue is why tobacco is under such attack, people forget that america was built by tobacco, we wouldnt be the country we are today if it wasnt for tobacco. also, alcohol is worse for you than tobacco, but alcohol companies can advertise wherever they want but tobacco companies cant. its illegal to consume alcohol and drive a car, its not illegal to smoke a cigarette and drive. and no one forces a person to consume tobacco, yes cigarettes comaines add addtives that get people hookahed on them, that is waht is illegal, not tobacco itself. tobacco is very enjoyable, its a natural plant given to us on this earth, same as a coffee bean. alcohol doesnt come from the ground, there is a process to ake it. i wish everyone would stop attacking tobacco and remeber how important tobacco is for our economy to suceed. we should be going after cars that use gas. its much more imrtant to eliminate all vehicles on this planet that run from gas/oil and find a solution that doesnt drive us to war and fighting, there has been proven cases that cars have been invented that run off other eresources that is cheaper and safer for the enviroment. but oil companies bought the patent for these designs so they could not be produced, so they can keep getting rich off oil. you cant choose not to drive a car that runs on gas.and then poor tobacco gets attacked becuase people choose to enjoy it,

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