What’s A Hookah?

A hookah is an ornate water pipe used for smoking tobacco and sometime for smoking marijuana. Hookahs are widely used in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean. They became a fashionable fad in the West a few years ago and hookah bars where you could drink coffee or alcohol and smoke flavored tobacco out of ornate hookahs opened up all over the country. Now that smoking bans are being passed in many states hookah bars are getting hard to find. Some shops that specialize in Middle Eastern goods or shops that specialize in tobacco goods still carry hookahs. The effects of hookah smoking are not very different from smoking tobacco in a pipe or cigarette. The history and facts on smoking using a hookah can be interesting to people who have an interest in the history of smoking and tobacco use. It can be tricky to learn how to smoke using a hookah but if you go to a hookah bar or hookah shop they will show you how to use it and let you pick an exotic flavored tobacco to try in it. Using a hookah to smoke can be a little different, a little bit exotic but it does not make smoking safe.

Is smoking tobacco out of a hookah safer than smoking tobacco in a cigarette?
Is smoking tobacco out of a hookah bad for you? The quick answer is yes. The after effects of hookah smoking are the same as smoking tobacco in a pipe or in a cigarette. There is no safe way to smoke tobacco. Even the hookahs water pipe system does not make tobacco safe. Smoking tobacco from a hookah will not stop the tobacco from causing health problems like heart disease. Using a hookah to smoke tobacco or marijuana will not make smoking healthy or less damaging. Smoking tobacco with a hookah can still damage your health and the health of the people around you. Despite mountains of evidence about how damaging smoking is people continue to smoke. While some people find smoking to be an enjoyable pastime they should realize the damage they are inflicting on their own health and the health of everyone around them. Even if they are smoking from a hookah parents should never smoke around their children and people should never smoke around their pets. If you chose to damage your own health smoking out of a hookah that is your choice to make but you shouldn’t damage the health of those you love through secondhand smoke.