Globe pushes nicotine addiction
Yes, it's Kick the Globe Day here at Universal Hub. Vigilant Globe reader bobmetcalf alerts us to this puff piece a couple days back on Boston hookah bars (where you smoke water pipes, not pick up ladies of the evening, you Boston perv), which claims:
It's not as stinky or unhealthy as cigarettes, plus you get to smoke inside.
Well, OK, I'll grant the non-stinkiness and indoorosity of it (because I've never been near one in use) but healthier? Let's see what a monkey with access to Google can find out, starting with a report by Al Jazeera: Study shows hookah health risks:
Smoking a water-pipe or hookah may be chic, but the carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and heavy metals contained in the smoke pose often-ignored health threats, researchers say. ... Carbon monoxide concentrations found in the bloodstreams of water-pipe smokers has been found to be quadruple the levels in cigarette smokers, the report said. ...
Studies have shown lung and bladder cancer rates are higher among water-pipe smokers than among nonsmokers, and they are also at risk from pulmonary disease and other types of malignancies, the report said.
A study of Egyptian couples found an association between water-pipe smoking and infertility, it said.
MSNBC: Hookahs may pose same risks as cigarettes:
GENEVA - Smoking from a water pipe may pose the same health risks as cigarettes, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, adding that there's a need for more research into the link between hookahs and a number of fatal illnesses.
American Cancer Society: It is marketed as being a safe alternative to cigarettes because the percentage of tobacco in the product smoked is low:
This claim for safety is false. The water does not filter out many of the toxins. In fact, hookah smoke contains more toxins such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, and other hazardous substances than cigarette smoke. Several types of cancer have been linked to hookah smoking. Hookah use is also linked to other unique risks not linked with cigarette smoking. For example, infectious diseases can be spread by sharing the pipe or through the way the tobacco is prepared.
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water pipes
are for smoking tobacco? Whenever I saw them, they were used for a different purpose.
Ron, please!
It's in the Boston Globe, as reported by two
reporters, so it must be true! That's my
last word on this as I'm trying to beat all that
Vermont-bound traffic.
Blessed are the Cheese Makers.
shocking eh? ;) I'm going to
shocking eh? ;)
I'm going to assume it means healthier simply on the basis of not having the additives that go into pre-rolled cigarettes. Not that it's healthy, not even not harmfull to your health, just that it has less of certain nasty things.
It's probably construed as
It's probably construed as being safer because it's something that someone is less likely (unless you have a hookah at home and use it all the time) to do than to say smoke 20 cigarettes in a given 24 hour period.
How can you tell?
I don't think you can assume they have less additives than your everyday Big Tobacco cig. Who knows what the hell happens to the stuff while it is being grown, harvested, or processed? Not to mention the fact that they often have additives for flavor purposes, sometimes from natural sources, sometimes from a tasty chemistry set somewhere. Extra stuff to burn is never a good thing.
hookah / nargileh is
hookah/nargileh is traditionally sweetened tobacco. *traditionally.*
Put down the Cheese and Garlic Scapes time to Pucker up
After a few days of the sillies, we're back to
serious content at the Globe and boston.com:
boston.com...best_places_to_kiss_in_boston/
I'm a little bit short on time this afternoon
(plus my computer display faces out towards a
public walkway.) Could somebody let me know if
they include that Salt and Pepper Bridge as one of
the places?
And your point is?
I don't see anything in the quotations you cited which contradicts the claim that hookah smoking is less dangerous than cigarette smoking. The one figure that supports the contrary is that CO levels are higher in the bloodstreams of water-pipe smokers, but that isn't the chief risk in cigarette smoking.
The second items says that "Smoking from a water pipe may pose the same health risks" and that further research is needed. Citing studies which say something "may" be true and suggesting further research can be used to prove virtually anything, including the regular abduction of people by UFO's. The third quote raises concerns, but doesn't establish either as being more dangerous overall than the other.
I've never seen anyone toss a still-smoldering hookah onto the curb, so I'll give it that advantage if nothing else.
Just my thought
I think that smoking tobacco is a bad habbit but we should no forget that smokers have their rights too. I do not believe that smoking is still promoted.