Hookah Causes Way More Than Cancer!

Hookah (a.k.a. sheesha, waterpipe, nargila, argeela) has become very popular amongst college students nowadays.  Nevertheless, very little of the harms are known to its users.  It is often quite misunderstood as being harmless and not-addicting.  However, scientific research has proven otherwise as it is clearly established that hookah causes cancer and is, in fact, more harmful to one’s health than cigarettes.  Just this week, the WHO (World Health Organization) published a seven-page report claiming that hookah is just as hazardous to one’s health if not more hazardous than smoking cigarettes.

Hookah, in fact, actually does contain nicotine and one sitting of hookah is more hazardous to one’s cardiovascular system than cigarettes.  Cardiovascular disease is a serious threat to hookah smokers.  The carbon monoxide (CO) intake is also at a dangerous level when smoking hookah as it holds negative effects for those even exposed to second-hand smoke.  Second-hand smoke of hookah contains nicotine (which has shown to show addiction even through second-hand smoke), TAR, and even worse, heavy metals such as cobalt, arsenic, and lead!  These metals destroy a person’s body!  These findings were published in a scientific journal that was peer-reviewed and can be found on PubMed!

Hookah has shown to cause serious diseases.  Accepted scientific studies show that hookah causes an increase in the frequency of chromosomal abberations and sister chromatids.  This implies that the chance of our children having mutations is increased many-fold.  This is true for the man as well as the woman since a child receives twenty-three chromosomes from each parent. Therefore, this one fact alone should scare us from even being exposed to second-hand smoke of hookah and risking the health of our children!

In rats, hookah has shown an increase in hyperkeratosis and degeneration.  Moreover, a study in the Journal of Periodontology found that gum disease is five times more likely to occur with hookah smokers.  Other scientifically accepted journals have shown than hookah is linked with atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, decreased pulmonary function, various other cardiovascular diseases, TUBERCULOSIS, eczema, aspergillosis (through contamination), and postextraction alveolitis (of the teeth).

On top of all the above, hookah also causes cancer!  In a recent study, eighty-eight percent of those people with cancer in India were at one-time hookah smokers.  The risk for lung cancer is significantly increased with hookah.  A study in Pediatrics concluded that hookah is at-least the same, if not worse for one’s health, cancer-wise, than cigarettes.  Professor Thomas Eissenberg of Virginia Commonwealth University concluded through his studies on hookah that “every risk of cigarette smoking is also associated with water pipes (hookah).” 

Therefore, let us stay away from hookah.  There are no benefits from it whatsoever.  Let us stay away from it for the sake of our children and our health.  May Allah (SWT) guide us all.  Ameen.