Thursday, October 19, 2006
On a trip to California with friends, Woods Denny saw people smoking hookah on the beach and was curious. He asked how it worked and bought one when he returned to Kansas. The Topeka senior was hooked.
Smoking hookah, a water pipe full of flavored tobacco, is a growing trend among college students, according to Christopher Loffredo, director of the Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology program at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Photo by Anna Faltermeier
KU students Bassem and Hazem Chahine smoke watermelon hookah at the Lebanese Hookah House, 730 Massachusetts St., Tuesday evening. A researcher from Georgetown University recently warned college students that Hookah is probably just as bad for your lungs as smoking a regular cigarette.
While it may appear different from smoking cigarettes, it can be just as harmful. There’s little up-to-date research on hookah, but Loffredo said in a press release that the habit was similar to smoking cigarettes.
According to a study by Alan Shihadeh, professor of Mechanical Engineering at the American University of Beirut, there may be as much tar in one hookah session as in 20 low-tar cigarettes. The level of nicotine consumed in a session is equal to about one cigarette.
Shihadeh’s study noted that hookah smoking releases lower amounts of second-hand smoke because of the closed nature of the hookah system.
Bridget Monahan, director of the Wellness Resource Center in Watkins Memorial Health Center, said the belief that water filters out harmful chemicals in hookah was an urban myth.
“What concerns me is it’s not seen as smoking, it’s seen as being social,” Monahan said. “Glamorous or exotic as some may find it to be, it’s still using tobacco.”
Bassem Chahine, co-owner of the Lebanese Hookah House, 730 Massachusetts St., said his customers were mostly Middle Eastern and American college students. He said hookah smoking was a social event.
“The hookah isn’t good for you, but you just don’t do it as often as cigarettes,” Chahine said. “You don’t hold the hookah while you’re walking or driving.”
Chahine said a typical smoking session lasted between one and two hours.
Mohammed Alshahab, freshman from Saudi Arabia, said he smoked hookah everyday. He and his roommates own several hookahs.
“You feel kind of dizzy if you smoke too much hookah at one time,” said Meshaal Alassaf, Saudi Arabia freshman and Alshahab’s roommate. He associated short-term problems, like headaches, with hookah and long-term problems, like cancer, with cigarettes.
Topeka senior Woods Denny’s hookah habit turned into a business. He sells hookah and hookah paraphernalia and has gotten several of his friends into smoking it.
“People come over and smoke and then they want one so I hook them up,” Denny said.
He said he thinks smoking hookah is less damaging than smoking cigarettes because the tobacco is filtered through water. But he acknowledges that it might not be the best thing for his health.
“It’s kind of like eating a Big Mac,” Denny said. “It’s not really good for people but they do it anyway.”
Kansan staff writer Anna Faltermeier can be contacted at afaltermeier@kansan.com.
— Edited by Dianne Smith
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