by Morgan Piven
Smoking hookah is a popular activity among young individuals. However, most are unaware of the possible consequences this smoke may hold. As hookah becomes more popular, the discussion regarding the health factors becomes more prominent as well.
Smoking hookah has been a popular activity as the number of college students engaging in it has increased over the past several years. However, many still remain in the dark in regards to the severe health risks associated with this past time.
Hookah is a pipe filled with water which filters the tobacco inhaled through a hose. 
This invention was first introduced in Turkey roughly 500 years ago, but opium and hashish was used instead of tobacco. Shisha is a form of tobacco often mixed with molasses and artificial flavoring. It is what is burned in a hookah. Today, there are dozens of flavors including everything from different fruits, herbs, chocolate and candies.
Using a water pipe is not safe because even after it has been passed through water, the smoke produced by a waster pipe contains high level of toxic components, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals.
Tobacco is harmful because burning any kind of plant matter creates tar that builds up in the lungs. Shisha is suspected to be particularly dangerous because it is moist and contains a lot of sugar, additives and flavoring. When someone burns and inhales sugar, the carbon in the sugar crystallizes, posing a health risk.
“I never really knew hookah was as bad as people now say,” Elworthy Williams, a University of Florida senior, said. “I always thought that since there is not a measurable amount of nicotine in hookah that it automatically made it healthier than cigarettes.”
People often consider hookah as a better option than cigarettes because the smoke is not nearly as harsh. However, the amount of smoke inhaled in a single cigarette is not nearly as much smoke as one typically inhales while smoking hookah in a single sitting.
In 2005, the World Health Organization was one of the first organizations to address the dangers of smoking hookah. Before then, hookah was widely overlooked because of all the anti-cigarette smoking campaigns out in the media. However, the American Lung Association now widely addresses the issue on their Web site.
“Contrary to what many beginning users may think, hookah tobacco use carries many of the same risks as cigarette smoking, including being linked to lung cancer and other lung diseases,” John L. Kirkwood, President and CEO of the American Lung Association, said. “Hookah tobacco use is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.”
A lot of this awareness stems from the plethora of hookah bars/cafes located just miles from campus. Gainesville, along with most college towns, typically house more hookah shops than other U.S. towns.
Smokeshop Magazine released a report that approximately 300 new hookah cafes have opened in the United States between 1999 and 2004. It looks like this popular pastime is one that is going to be documented in the health books for years to come.
This whole article is dumb. First of all, the tobacco or shisha that is smoked is not burned. The coal ontop “bakes” the shisha. Basically it warms it up to be smoked, not burned. When you inhale it pulls the heat from the coal and to the shisha in the bowl. The shisha is then filtered through the water. Also, there are no chemicals in the shisha. The tobacco in the shisha isn’t processed, meaning it’s just natural tobacco without the chemicals that are added such as in cigarettes.
I’m not saying that shisha is good for anyone to smoke, it’s still smoke being inhaled into your lungs so it’s definitely not good for you, however it’s not bad as this article makes it out to be. Go to a professional hookah/shisha site and it will show how shisha is not as bad as cigarettes and it will mention how smoking shisha is still not great for your body.
This is stupid, if smoking hookah is the least of what people are smoking on campus then parents should be proud, people are doing hard core drugs! and yet all we hear about is how bad smoking is now lets go take a bong hit. What a bunch of idiots. I mean hello, life isn’t healthy, you can’t live in a bubble guess what sooner or later your going to die, and that applies to non-smokers as well. look at our grandparents generation they had leaded gasoline, and pipes, almost everyone smoked and at red meat and guess what? they seem to be lasting longer then our baby boomer parents who don’t smoke, and eat salmon and fish so grow a pair. If you don’t want to smoke then don’t but leave other people alone. Oh and we’ve all heard how smoking takes six years of your life…good six shitty years, 90 instead of 96 or 80 instead of 86 at that point who the F@#$ cares? guess I’ll miss out on my retirment home years and all the pearks of sitting in a rocking chair