The harm of hookah. A dangerous ancient ritual.

Damage to the hookah - what's the danger? Can I get used to smoking hookah? How much is the hookah more harmful than cigarettes? Why does smoking start with euphoria? Why hookah and cigarette smoke harm different parts of the respiratory system? What is dangerous is the transfer of one mouthpiece to all participants in the hookah "session"?

Hookah harm at work and on vacation

Hookah - a device consisting of a tank with water, a tube with a special receptacle for tobacco or other smoking mixture and a second tube, with a mouthpiece intended directly for smoking. Let's try to figure out how much harm the hookah is real, if it exists at all.

Hookah exists in the East a long time ago and its use often occurs both during the rest and during business negotiations. In recent decades, the practice of smoking hookah spread in Europe and America, it has become frequent application of it in our country. And in itself the process of smoking hookah is perceived as a kind of mystery, an ancient ritual, a fashionable, "salon" pastime, accessible and understandable only to the chosen. And very few of these most selected pay attention to the damage they get from the hookah.

Fans of smoking through hookah the same tobacco, for example, argue that the hookah smoking technique makes it less harmful than the classically used cigarettes. Is this so, and what arguments can be given in response, what facts prove that the harm of a hookah from smoking tobacco through it is not safe, but, on the contrary, is more harmful in terms of the sum of the factors than cigarettes?

In order to give a decent response to those who consider the harm of hookah less strong than cigarettes, we must remember what arguments are usually given in defense of the hookah? Why do we need a hookah, what good is it? For relaxation - the supporters answer and argue that the nervous system smoking hookah acts soothing and well relaxes. It is true, but at first it relaxes both the intake of alcohol and drugs, which does not mean that they will be harmed in the future. They say that there is no getting used to the hookah - but studies by Canadian doctors have shown - there is, and no less, than to the commonly used tobacco, thus confirming that the harm of the hookah can be very strong. And since the hookah itself is a piece of cumbersome stuff, you can not put it in your pocket, you will not smoke at a stop or at the entrance. And a person, even deciding to give up a cigarette in favor of a hookah, will probably return to it again.

The harm of hookah. Too much poison!

It is believed that tobacco smoke, passing through water, gives it some of the harmful substances and cools. This is also not quite true. The temperature of smoldering coals and smoke above them in the hookah is more than 400 degrees Celsius, and even passing it through cold water can not cool the combustion products to a safe temperature, a group of Egyptian doctors working under the auspices of WHO. In addition, most components of tobacco smoke do not dissolve in water - hence, they go further - into the lungs of the smoker. Thus, the harm of the hookah is significant. And if you can smoke a cigarette by spending a few minutes, you can quit without finishing it - if you have to go somewhere urgently, then the hookah ceremony lasts a long time. And for the "session" of smoking hookah, the amount of harmful tar, products of tobacco burning and other very harmful substances enter the body in an amount equal to 60 cigarettes - so many times no one smokes! And all this is contained in 25 grams of special smoking tobacco mixture - the standard dosage for filling the hookah.

The harm of hookah. Choose: larynx cancer or lung cancer.

There is an opinion that smoking hookah mixes are often made by handicraft, and no one really checks them. Of course, such mixtures are especially dangerous and the harm of hookah during their smoking can be significant. And the most common hookah tobacco "tumbak" in most Arab countries contains more nicotine than not just light, but even ordinary cigarettes. When smoking a hookah, the volume of the inhaled gas mixture at a time is significantly greater than when smoking a cigarette, so the effect of harmful gases is made directly to the nearby parts of the respiratory system - the pharynx, the trachea, the large bronchi, and not the small bronchioles, as with the cigarette "inspiration." The harm of a hookah in this case is incredibly powerful. It is difficult to say that it is better to get sick, after all, by cancer of the larynx or lung cancer.

The harm of hookah. A strange thrill.

But the fact that no one denies - after the hookah rights covers the state of euphoria. There was even a suspicion that marijuana or some other harmful substances were being added to smoking tobacco mixtures, but it was not supported by evidence. But it was found that in the smoke that passed through the water, the amount of carbon monoxide, a substance that promotes the expansion of blood vessels and, thus, dipping a person into a state similar to a slight intoxication is increased. The content of carbon monoxide in hookah smoke, as it turned out, is twice as much as in a similar number of cigarettes. The action of this substance, although not fully understood, but it is considered harmful to the body.

Hookah harm as a terrible infection

And the last thing that can be "blamed" on the hookah smoking method is the tradition of transferring one tip to the other and contributes to the transmission of some infections, for example, hepatitis A and tuberculosis. The harm of hookah in such a situation can be especially insidious. Doctors of Egypt, for example, where tuberculosis is very common, used to blame for this fact the dry climate that promotes the transmission and good survival of mycobacteria tuberculosis, and now they sin on the universal hookah infatuation. There are models of hookahs, suggesting the insertion of several isolated smoking pipes into one tank, but the traditional smoking ceremony presupposes the transfer of the tube from one smoker to another, and this habit will probably continue in the future.

That's what we can say about hookah today, and considering that comprehensive studies of the hookah and its harm are constantly being conducted, it is possible that in the near future we will learn some new details, saying that it is not that good, this fashionable old ritual.