This article is meant to inform the reader about hookah. No one is going to stop you from having a fun night, however, it is important that you have a safe night. Unlike most articles, this article is not meant to scare you or exaggerate facts, just to state the truth. One night of reasonable hookah smoking is damaging but it will not kill most people on the spot. However, consistent hookah use has damaging short-term and long-term effects. Many hookah smokers would like to believe hookah is safe, and that is a dangerous misconception. Before you go smoke hookah, talk to your doctor especially if you have certain cardio-pulmonary conditions such as asmatha or heart disease. Read more for more in-depth information about hookah.

Currently research focuses mostly on cigarette smoke, while many people smoke tobacco using water pipe, also known as Hookah. Waterpipe, of Middle Eastern origin it is used to smoke sweet, often flavored, tobacco. In young adults use of hookah is increasing in popularity; hookah smokers believe that hookah tobacco is neither addictive nor as harmful as smoking other tobacco products like cigarettes. Hookah smoke of various fruity flavors, tastes, and aromas may be even more harmful than cigarette. The duration of a single puff of hookah smoke is double that of a cigarette and the suction pressure for inhalation of hookah smoke is four times that for a cigarette, the hookah smoke reaches deeper into lung tissue. As a result more must be learned from them so that we can understand their health effects and help their users quit. The science shows that smoke from a waterpipe contains many of the same harmful and carcinogenic components as cigarette smoke. The smoke produced from a single waterpipe use contains approximately the same amount of tar as 20 cigarettes. Relative to a single cigarette, 45 min of waterpipe use produces hookah smoke nearly with 100 times more tar, 4 times more nicotine, 11 times more carbon monoxide, 2 times more phenanthrene (co-carcinogen), 4 times more fluranthracene (co-carcinogen), and 5 times more chrysene (tumor initiator) than cigarette smoke, for each gram of the respective tobaccos. When people smoke from hookahs, they often share mouthpieces. Sharing mouthpieces adds the risk of getting colds, viruses like herpes, oral bacteria infections and tuberculosis. While the water does absorb some of the nicotine, waterpipe smokers can be exposed to a sufficient dose of this drug to cause addiction and nicotine dependence will result from repeated tobacco inhalation. Water pipe use likely increases the risk for bronchogenic carcinoma, as well as lung, oral and bladder cancer. Secondhand hookah smoke is particularly harmful because it is a mix of both tobacco smoke and the smoke emitted from the fuel source that burns the tobacco, which is often charcoal. Charcoal emits carbon monoxide along with other toxic substances. For more information about this topic please go to American Lung Association website or log on to http://www.lungusa.org/.
References:
1. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic
Maziak et al. Tob Control.2004; 13: 327-333
2. Djordjevic MV, Stellman SD, Zang E. Doses of nicotine and lung carcinogens delivered to cigarette smokers. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2000, 92 (2):106-11
3. Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators. WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg). http://tobacco.who.int
4. www.lungusa.org