Hookah VS Cigarettes

On April 19,2013 in an article titled, “Study: Hookah no safer than cigarettes, just differently dangerous” from the Los Angeles Times, Amina Khan reported about an interesting study on hookah and cigarettes. Cigarettes have earned the reputation as a cancer-causing practice. New research now shows that water pipes, also known as shisha or hookah, are dangerous, like cigarettes, in a different way. A 2011 study found more than forty percent of college students had used hookah, and many of them believed that it was safer than cigarettes. Many doctors have tried to dissuade this notion. Therefore researchers at UC San Francisco conducted a randomized study of thirteen volunteers, who were smokers of both cigarettes and hookah. Each participant smokes cigarettes for four days and a week later smoked cigarettes for four days again. They each smoked an average of eleven cigarettes per day or three water-pipe sessions per day. The results that scientists found were that water pipers had a 2.5 times higher carbon monoxide level than cigarette smokers. Carbon monoxide can increase the risk for heart attacks, strokes, and sudden death in certain people who have lung illnesses or heart problems. They also found that hookah smokers’ urine had a higher level of benzene, which has been related to leukemia. According to researchers, “ Of particular concern is the risk of leukemia related to high levels of benzene exposure with water pipe use” (Los Angeles Times).