What you don’t know can KILL you!

“Guys, lets party and smoke water pipe (Hookah/Shisha) all night long”, I have heard this millions of times from my friends and every time I hear it, I am bombarding them with the lectures regarding how water pipe tobacco smoking can damage their organic machinery resulting in various health issues. Before I proceed with the “Water-Pipe Smoking Trend” in the society, let’s talk about what smoking is.

You may be the one welcoming your TRAGIC END yourself!

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. The combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking implements include pipes, cigars, hookahs, vaporizers and bongs. The water pipe smoking is ensuring the progress in health problems occupying the society with the fast-paced time. Our youth is naïve, they would be attracted and lured by everything that comes their way with charm, trend, addiction and especially they would do anything to look “COOL” – this “COOL” primarily is the major route to our youth’s devastation. A very important issue that should be regarded here along with SMOKING is the problem of “IMITATION” in youth – the blind following of the customs and traditions of the modern society in no way guarantees the prosperity and development. One needs to think and ponder over the actions before making an attempt. This blessing referred as the “capability to THINK” makes us the best on the planet but if we don’t utilize the given blessing then we are unquestionably violating the system and choice of Nature.

We all are very well-aware of how water pipe tobacco smoking can be more dangerous and harmful than smoking cigarettes and if that was never highlighted to you before, then here you go with the CAPS: WATER PIPE TOBACCO SMOKING CAN BE POSSIBLY MORE DANGEROUS THAN SMOKING CIGARETTES. This in no way indicates that I encourage smoking cigarettes but those “WANNA-BEES” who think that flavored tobacco is incredibly intoxicating and harmless then it is time for the high alert because their assumptions need to be upgraded to the ground reality.

 A water pipe consists of a smoke chamber, a bowl, a pipe and a hose. Specially made tobacco is heated, and the smoke passes through water and is then drawn through a rubber hose to a mouthpiece. The tobacco is no less toxic in the water pipe, and the water in the hookah does not filter out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco smoke. Water pipe tobacco smokers may actually inhale more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do because of the large volume of smoke they inhale in one smoking session, which can last as long as 60 minutes.

While research about water pipe smoking is still emerging, evidence shows that it poses many dangers:

1)       Water Pipe Tobacco smoke contains high levels of toxic compounds, including tar, carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens). In fact, water pipe smokers are exposed to more carbon monoxide and smoke than are cigarette smokers.

2)       As with cigarette smoking, water pipe tobacco smoking is linked to lung and oral cancers, heart disease, and other serious illnesses.

3)       Water pipe tobacco smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking, possibly leading to tobacco dependence.

4)       Water pipe smoke poses dangers associated with secondhand smoke.

5)       Water pipe smoking by pregnant women can result in low birth weight babies.

6)       Water pipes used in bars and cafes may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of infectious diseases.

Say “NO” to TOBACCO!

Do you know that a typical water pipe session can last up to an hour; a person can inhale as much smoke in one water pipe smoking session as is contained in 100 to 200 cigarettes. This is an alarm for the wake-up call; everything necessarily doesn’t turn out to be as pleasant as its impression throughout. Many find water pipe tobacco more appealing than cigarettes because of its sweet flavors but the sweet flavored tobacco in no means is a safe alternative to cigarettes as a WHO report revealed that a person smoking a water pipe takes in deeper and longer puffs of smoke than a person smoking a cigarette. Another misconception regarding water pipe is how water in the pipe is capable of filtering the toxic chemicals in the hookah instead  the WHO report stated that the charcoal burnt in hookah smoking contains additional dangerous substances, like carbon monoxide and various metals, that are not filtered out by the water in the pipe. In simple words, what you don’t know can kill you regardless of the sophistication of the modern world where information travels at the lightning pace.

 Download/View the following PDF file to look up for the report prepared by WHO regarding Water Pipe Tobacco Smoking.

 WHO Study Group On Tobacco Product Regulation