Hot Topics: Hookah popularity in college towns worries health officials

For many who smoke tobacco with a hookah, it’s a social pastime that doesn’t carry the same unhealthy stigma as cigarette smoking.

But what many fans of this increasingly popular method of smoking tobacco do not know is that one 25-minute hookah session is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes, health officials said.

“People tend to inhale very deeply when they are using a hookah. They actually, in effect, get 20 times the amount of nicotine then when you smoke a single cigarette,” said Donald Shell, who works on tobacco prevention efforts at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Hookah – also referred to as a narghile, shisha or waterpipe – allows users to smoke flavored tobacco that is filtered through a liquid, typically water. The tobacco is placed in the bowl of the hookah and heated with a coal. The smoke is then pulled through decorative hoses after first passing through the liquid.

The practice originated in India and the Middle East in the middle of the last millennium and has since found its way into a growing number of college towns in the states.

As more hookah lounges open, health officials said they are worried users do not fully understand the risks associated with the pastime.

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