Water pipe is no safe alternative to cigarettes

Smoking a water pipe or hookah may be chic, but the carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and heavy metals contained in the smoke pose often-ignored health threats, researchers have reported.

Carbon monoxide concentrations found in the bloodstreams of water-pipe smokers have been found to be quadruple the levels of cigarette smokers’, said the report published in the July issue of Pediatrics. The nicotine content in water-pipe tobacco also tends to be higher than that found in cigarettes. However, pipe smokers are less likely to make it a daily habit.

Studies have shown that water-pipe smokers’ rates of lung and bladder cancer are higher than those of nonsmokers, and they are also at risk from pulmonary disease and other types of malignancies, the report said.

It is estimated that more than 100 million people globally smoke a water pipe on any given day. The report cited an upsurge in hookah smoking with “hookah bars” in major cities.

“This phenomenon has been attributed to the perception that water-pipe smoking is less dangerous than cigarette smoking, its easy availability, its low cost and a number of other factors,” wrote report author Barry Knishkowy of Israel’s Ministry of Health in Jerusalem.