Cigarettes are a health hazard, Sameer Sharma knows. So, three years ago, the 22-year-old college student switched to a “healthier” fix—hookah. “As the tobacco is filtered through the water, the damage done is far less. And while a cigarette does not last for more than two to three minutes, one can hold a pipe for hours together,” he reasons. Sameer is wrong. A recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that smoking tobacco from a water pipe is as harmful—if not more—as puffing on cigarettes. A person can inhale over 100 times more smoke in a hookah session lasting between 30-60 minutes than he does by smoking a single cigarette, the report says.

The UN health agency also pointed out that the rising popularity of hookahs is partly due to “unfounded assumptions” of safety and misleading commercial marketing. In cities across India, hookah bars are a hit with the young and the well-heeled. Usually complemented with shisha—a special blend of tobacco and molasses—the bars serve hookah with flavours like apple, peach, mango, mint and strawberry. The lighter flavours make it a hit with women.

Never mind the smoothness, say experts, the pipe is as harmful as the cancer stick. “Hookah makes use of a large quantity of pure, shredded tobacco. Smoking a hookah for 30-60 minutes thus is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes. The tobacco burns at a lower temperature in water pipes, which makes it easier to inhale. But the smoke penetrates deeper into the respiratory tract. This causes more damage than a cigarette,” says Dr M.S. Kanwar, senior consultant, respiratory medicine, Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.

... contd.