Hookahs or water pipes may seem harmless to the naked eye compared to smoking cigarettes, but according to a study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention , they can cause significant damage to our health and, like tobacco, the death
The study has been carried out jointly by the National Institute of Health of California (USA) and the research program related to tobacco of the same state who have used biomarkers to investigate the degree to which water pipe smokers are exposed to nicotine and other volatile organic compounds . For the study, they had 55 hookah smokers between the ages of 18 and 48 , who were asked for a urine sample right after conducting the experiment. Participants had an evening water pipe session of their choice. In the morning, the researchers again requested a urine sample for analysis.
Examination of the collected data revealed that the urine sample taken just after the hookah session contained elevated levels of nicotine, butanol, and cotinine . And the next day’s sample still contained significant levels of all of these substances. In addition, the increase in nicotine levels was comparable to what a person would obtain after having smoked at least one cigarette.
The researchers explain that although the popular opinion of hookah smoking is that it is completely safe and harmless, the conclusions clarify that these people are exposed to significant levels of carbon monoxide, nicotine, the specific nitrosamines of tobacco, carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons , as well as the addiction to nicotine suffered by habitual cigarette smokers.
“Also important is exposure to carcinogens in waterpipe smoke, such as benzene, which is known to cause leukemia , the most common cancer in children and adolescents,” says study leader Gideon St Helen. .
