In D.C., the Hazards of Hookah

The hottest tobacco trend of the 21st century is an ancient tobacco-smoking method called hookah, or water pipes. This ancient method of smoking, which originated in Persia and India, heats a special type of tobacco and transfers the fumes through a water-filled bowl. Smokers inhale through the water pipe's hose, which is passed around as a social activity. Many Washington restaurants and bars are offering hookah smoking for patrons; it is becoming as fashionable as cigars were in the 1990s.

When I was at a D.C. restaurant recently, I saw eight students walk in, sporting middle-school mascots on their shirts. They looked no older than 14. They ordered two hookahs and smoked for about an hour. No one bothered them. No one questioned them. It seemed as though no one even cared that what seemed like 14-year-olds were smoking. No one, that is, except me.

I asked my medical and public health school friends what they thought about what I saw. They all agreed and were "sure" that hookah smoking was not unhealthy or unsafe. Boy, were they wrong -- although their opinions are apparently the norm.

According to the American Lung Association, hookah smoking is thriving because of a false belief that it is safe when, in fact, it carries many of the same risks as smoking cigarettes. Despite evidence on the risks, the general public does not perceive hookah smoking to be as harmful as cigarette smoking. Many believe that water filters out harmful agents. However, toxic compounds, including carcinogens, remain.

One World Health Organization advisory reports that a typical one-hour session of smoking with a hookah exposes the smoker to as much as 200 times the amount of smoke inhaled from one cigarette. Even with ample evidence of health risks, it took decades for legislators to regulate cigarettes. Must history repeat itself with the hookah trend?

Shouldn't there be a minimum age for hookah smoking, as there is for cigarettes? Why is hookah smoking exempted from D.C. smoke-free laws? How is this fad going to affect future morbidity and mortality rates? I'm not sure I want to know.

The most important task at this point is to raise awareness. The city should broaden its anti-smoking campaigns to include hookah smoking. After all, this hot fad may be on its way to becoming a deadly epidemic. It's just that few people know enough about the dangers of hookah to stop the hype and drop the pipe.

-- Rabia Mir

Washington