Hookah smoke more dangerous than given credit for

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There are times in life when you wish someone would have advised you before the damage was done.

Your article on “Hookah Smoke Rising” on Monday March 24, 2010 gave the impression that it is a safer, cleaner alternative to other ways to smoke.

Indeed, hookah promoters have been using the logic that as smoke passes through water it sheds most of its harmful properties.

What the hookah promoters don’t tell you is that the charcoal that is burning on top of the tobacco releases far more carbon monoxide (CO) than if you smoked a dozen cigars one after another.

CO does not dissolve in water that easily, but is passed on to the smoker, where it bonds hundreds of times more easily than oxygen to the smoker’s red blood cells, destroying them and reducing oxygen to all vital organs causing more brain cells to die.

Those who think hookah is cleaner and more “hip”should talk to some older people in countries like Turkey, Greece and some Middle East countries and they will tell you how their relatives who used hookah, even for less than 10 years, seriously damaged their lung capacities.

Manu Yektafard
Weidman Resident