Heavy toxicant burden of hookah smoking revealed by new study

A new study has demonstrated that smoking tobacco via hookahs may be much more dangerous than many people realise.

The University of Pittsburgh examined data from 17 existing studies to produce estimates on the amount of toxicants inhaled when smoking cigarettes compared to hookahs, communal pipes that enable users to draw tobacco smoke through water.

It was found that compared with a single cigarette, one hookah session delivers approximately 125 times the smoke, 25 times the tar, 2.5 times the nicotine and ten times the carbon monoxide.

Dr Brian Primack, assistant vice-chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh's Schools of the Health Sciences, said: "The estimates we found cannot tell us exactly what is 'worse', but what they do suggest is that hookah smokers are exposed to a lot more toxicants than they probably realise."

Although a like-for-like comparison is skewed by the often very different smoking habits of hookah users, it nevertheless draws attention to the fact that greater scrutiny needs to be applied to the health impact of this practice.

Hookah smoking is not frequently studied compared to cigarettes, e-cigs and chewing tobacco, but is an increasingly popular pastime, particularly among students.