Study: Hookah Smokers Inhale 25 Times the Tar of Cigarette Smokers
Hookah tobacco contains substantially more toxins and, therefore, poses significantly more health risks than cigarettes, according to a recent study.1
Hookah smoking—smoking tobacco through a water pipe—has surpassed cigarette smoking among U.S. high school students because they think it’s safer than smoking cigarettes.
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To understand what toxins are associated with hookah, researchers analyzed 542 studies relating to cigarette and hookah smoking and then performed a meta-analysis of 17 studies that contained comparable, reliable data on toxins inhaled by smokers.
Results showed that hookah smokers inhale 125 times the smoke, 25 times the tar, 2.5 times the nicotine, and 10 times the carbon monoxide than cigarette smokers.
Because substance abuse and behavioral surveys currently don’t collect data on hookah smoking behavior and because smoking frequency varies between hookah smokers and cigarette smokers, more research is needed in this area to make any definitive conclusions.
"It's not a perfect comparison because people smoke cigarettes and hookahs in very different ways," researchers concluded. “So, the estimates we found cannot tell us exactly what is 'worse.' But what they do suggest is that hookah smokers are exposed to a lot more toxicants than they probably realize. After we have more fine-grained data about usage frequencies and patterns, we will be able to combine those data with these findings and get a better sense of relative overall toxicant load."2
--Amanda Balbi
Reference:
Primack BA, Carroll MV, Weiss PM, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of inhaled toxicants from waterpipe and cigarette smoking. Public Health Rep. 2016;131(1):76-85. Published online ahead of print January 11, 2016.
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences. One hookah tobacco smoking session delivers 25 times the tar of a single cigarette [press release]. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/uops-oht011116.php.