News-Letter

The organization reported that those who engage in typical hookah use inhale more smoke than a cigarette smoker. This is because a session of hookah-smoking is usually much longer than the time it takes to smoke a cigarette.

On average, cigarette smokers take in around half a liter of smoke per cigarette over the course of five to seven minutes. A session of hookah-smoking may last between 20 and 80 minutes, during which time the hookah smoker would inhale as much smoke as a cigarette smoker would inhale from 100 or more cigarettes.

Another downside: The water in a hookah does not absorb enough nicotine to negate its addictiveness. Inhaling tobacco smoke of any origin is bad for you because the burning of tobacco produces tar, which builds up in your lungs.

Nevertheless, smoking with water pipes has lasted as a cultural practice in societies for centuries. Young and old alike smoke hookah with friends and family on a regular basis.

But unlike addicted cigarette smokers, they don't get up in the morning thinking, "I can't get through this day without that one drag on the hookah."

Why? Because they smoke in moderation, once or twice a week, and do not hog the pipe like they need it to survive.

Cigarette smokers pause conversations to go on cigarette breaks and fight to drop their daily dose from five cigarettes to four.

Hookah smokers may look forward to that relaxing few puffs after dinner, but they surely do not bring a mini hookah to work for their lunch break. They do not depend on it.

Perhaps this moderation should be the idea behind all smoking - the occasional cigarette is much less harmful than a pack a week, and no smoking is less harmful than the occasional cigarette, or the occasional use of a hookah.

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