Reuters is such a great news-gathering entity and I rely on it so much that I am surprised to have to poke some fun at it. Just a little. The story sounds funny but, as I wrote it, I realized that it did describe a danger for some — just took itself a little too seriously but there are always slow news days which is about the same as having a “bad hair day” for a journalist.
There was little enough happening in the world that they wrote a piece with deep seriousness about the dangers of “… College kids starting a hookah habit”. Oh yes, there is a population who are worried that their children are going to be led into things worse than the sins of the pool room in River City. They are going to be again instantly dominated by the act of smoking like the Alice caterpillar and asking “Who are you?. Sometimes the hysteria of worry about addictions seems so much worse than the pleasure of the act and its’ addictive fervor. Who are you to travel with a hookah in your back-pack? A glass bowled hookah? A tall hookah? An expensive hookah?
I don’t even think that opium or other recreational drugs are being put into the latest American nightmare to keep middle-aged couples awake and hassled for the night. “My son is a caterpillar”, wails the suburban hausfrau. “All he does is sit on the leaf of a big plant and smoke his hookah. He even blows smoke-rings for little girls who visit”. Or so the suburban legend will begin.
They reported that a Dr. Christopher Loffredo, who is the director of the Cancer Genetics and epidemiology Prograw at Georgetwon Medical Center, is concerned over what he sees as an increasing use of hookah smoking of tobacco in Egyptian and American young people. Egypt began in 1997 for him where I am sure there is more acceptance, interest and modeling of hookah use by young people. Now he feels that he is noting an increase in hookah freaks among the American young.
Remember, you can’t publish rather than perish if you don’t do some studies to publish. Which is surely not to say that studies of human actions with all manner of substances is not called for. But hookahs? Try and find one here near the Belize border, Guatemala and Honduras. And they have all manner of tobacco types to stuff in their bowls.
Dr. Loffredo is right on a basic level when he says that we are already aware of the harm in cigarettes but that no one has put much effort into hookahs. “That kind of basic research really needs to be done so we have a better sense of what these health risks might be.” I assume the tobacco is cleaner and it might taste better filtered through a flavorful liquid. I also think that my old habits of chain-smoking provided far more chances for me to spend time with my cigarretes than I would have spent with my hookah (and once I remember having one).
At this mid-way point I planned to add the disclaimer that smoking anything — especially tobacco — is definitely, absolutely, provably, horribly, dangerously, intensely bad for you. There is no question. I am a living example of the ex-heavy smoker who suffered massive health problems partly from that addiction. There were genetic and other reasons but smoking was surely a factor.
I am also the proof of the addictive pudding. Twelve years after giving up cigarrettes — while sucking oxygen on an intensive treatment unit — I am still smoke-free and still alive. But twelve years after giving up the evil substance I still crave it. I still sometimes want to beat the wall in my need for a cigarrette which I once did try and found myself incapable of inhaling that beloved smoke. That proves to me that smoking tobacco is at least as addictive as heroin or any other so-called dangerous drug and probably more so. Remember the ghost-tobacco-freak in the movie Ghost? Sad stuff!
Therefore, just say no to tobacco in all its’ forms. Say “no” right off the bat because it is not as easy an addiction as heroin to quit and just as dangerous as the stuff made in fast food joints that will kill the next generation with yet another socially acceptable addiction.
Then I began to look into the new versions and importations of hookahs and Egyptian, flavored tobaccos that have appeared to appease this newish (ancient) entertainment. It is not the cheap, single hookah to be found in the “head shop” of yester-decade when I was smoking and visiting head shops from the East Village to San Francisco. Now the internet offers a tempting array of paraphanalia. Even I found a hookah quickly that I wanted (bang my head against the wall again!) just because it looked so pretty and probably tasted good. There might even be some chance that some people put something besides tobacco in the bowl. Really, such things are possible.
So, are there hookah parties? There were in the days of old, sitting in a foursome sucking smoke from tubes. There might be now. Is it so dangerous as the good Dr. Loffredo worried,
The concern is that the session of smoking is very long. There’s a social dimension to it. You’re sitting with friends, typically…” and the party time might be… three hours or more. That’s a lot of tobacco exposure in that time period.
True, but how much “tobacco exposure” did Humphrey Bogart manage running a bar on a French island? Or Edward R. Murrow while planning how to broadcast news the way news should be broadcast? Of course you must not forget that they suffered terribly for their addictions.
The good part is that I don’t totally believe Dr. Loffredo. I think hookah smoking is neither a long-term activity nor a long-lived fashion here in the West. The other good thing is that the objects are far prettier than a pack of “fags” as they were once known when rolled up into the short sleeve of your T-shirt when you weren’t wearing your black, leather jacket with the great zippers everywhere.
When I hit the trusty Google search button on my Firefox controls, the number of hookah sites and purveyors surprised me. Just looking at SouthSmoke.com they not only might sell you an intriguing conversation piece with one, two or four hoses and flavored tobacco but even the case I thought that hookah freaks wouldn’t have when they were running from the scene. They have them. Not only that but they publish “Hookah Etiquette” which is one of those Emily Post things I never learned.
When smoking with the Hookah, follow these guidelines to ensure a safe and enjoyable smoking experience.
Never light your cigarette using a Charcoal, as it is considered disrespectful in some countries.
When passing the Hookah around, make sure that the Hookah Hose is pointed in your direction, as it is more polite.
Please do not place your Hookah on top of a table because if the Hookah tips over, it becomes a fire hazard.
Never blow smoke in another persons face without their consent.
Never share your plastic mouthpiece with another person, as it does not promote good hygiene.
In order to indicate that you have finished using the Hookah, wrap the Hose around the Shaft.
Use the Tongs when igniting the Quicklighting Charcoals, as you risk getting severely burned if you use your hands.
Do not blow into the Hookah when other people are smoking the Hookah with you.
Only use Flavored Tobacco when smoking with the Hookah.
Do not place the Charcoals directly on the Flavored Tobacco, as the Tobacco is not suppose to be burned.
I would love to be young, stupid and immortal again. For those of you who think you are, please think again.
Health
