The Dangers of Smoking Hookah

It's something that's becoming more and more popular: smoking hookah.

"I like the idea of setting up the hookah and sitting around the couch with like five friends," said Tamara Cohen.

Firing up this contraption is one way she relaxes. The Syracuse University senior smokes tobacco through a water pipe. She said smoking through the pipe goes back to her culture and from the time spent in Israel. She said the device helps to set a nice mood.

"For me the benefits outweigh the costs because it creates a nice situation."

Smoking tobacco, or hookah, involves inhaling smoke through a hose as heat pulls the burned tobacco flavor down to the water. Even though the smoke may calm you down, it's making dangerous changes inside your body.

"It's a drug like any other...it can become addicting," said Jenny Dickinson of the Onondaga County Health Department. It doesn't matter if people smoke alone or with friends because it's dangerous either way, says Dickinson.

There are some people who smoke with friends by going to the latest hot spot on Marshall Street. People go to Hollywood Hookah to enjoy the social atmosphere. Employees there maintain a close watch over their customers and make sure they remain hydrated.

"We give them a water, we have a certain amount of waters that we'll give out free a night," said Ali Rideau who works at the bar. "The girls, the waitresses that come around, their job is to ask 'do you need anything to drink, is there anything we can get you?'"

"It's something else to do than the typical party scene," said freshman Rob Solonick. it was his first time visiting the bar and he brought a few friends along with him. "it's just something different than say going to a frat."

A Syracuse University professor of drugs and human behavior says these gatherings are a fad and warns that a 30-to-60 minute hookah session equates to smoking several packs of cigarettes. Rideau said she knows smoking hookah contains dangerous chemicals, but it's safer than smoking cigarettes.

"For your concern be aware that it is still nicotine, that you're still getting some in your body so it isn't completely healthy, but not to the point where you're going to get lung cancer." Rideau said smoking the kind of hookah offered at the bar is safer than smoking cigarettes.

According to the World Health Organization, the amount of nicotine in just one puff of hookah tobacco is equal to smoking 10 cigarettes. Although the concentration of nicotine is lower in hookah than cigs, the amount someone inhales is much greater. According to documents from the County Health Department, there's a lack of awareness and misperceptions amongst hookah users on the dangers of smoking hookah.

"Yea I was always under the impression, just the pure tobacco, wasn't as bad as smoking cigs, because they always tell you about the addicting attitude," said Solonick. "I just thought the pure tobacco wasn't as bad."

"If someone would have told me that 10 years ago I probably wouldn't have done it," said Cohen.