Governments are already wrangling with regulation of marijuana and e-cigarettes. A recent study conducted by UCLA might not spurn any new laws governing hookah smoking, but it certainly provided some perspective of how people age 30 and under view the health impacts of the trendy form of socializing.
According to information released the UCLA School of Nursing, about 57 percent of people who participated in a field study believed hookah smoking was not harmful to their health.
The respondents were patrons of one of three Southern California hookah lounges UCLA researchers visited during their study. Full findings of the research project were published in the most recent issue of the journal Nursing Research.
During the hookah lounge visitations, researchers reportedly asked people between the ages of 18 and 30 a series of questions, including, “Do you believe smoking hookah is harmful to your health?”
To that question, 57 percent reportedly said “No.”
Researchers reportedly asked those 57 percent a follow-up question of what made them believe hookah is not harmful. According to the information released by the UCLA School of Nursing, about 47 percent said they believed hookah was not harmful because the water filters the smoke.
Another 35 percent reportedly believed hookah was not harmful because the fruit flavoring detoxified the tobacco’s chemicals.
About 16 percent of people who believed hookah was not harmful to one’s health reportedly said the tobacco used is not addictive and is absent of nicotine.
Researchers also asked respondents whether they found hookah smoking as more attractive than cigarette smoking. According to the UCLA study, 60 percent of respondents said doing hookah was a form of socializing with friends.
As for the 43 percent of people who did believe hookah smoking was harmful to one’s health, a statement about the UCLA study said this group believed doing hookah with friends outweighed any health impacts.
In 1997, an article published in the New York Times quoted a 71-year-old man who distinguished hookah from cigarettes, stating the former is for people who are not nervous or competitive or always on-the-run.
“Cigarettes are for nervous people, competitive people, people on the run,” the New York Times quoted the then-71-year-old as saying. “When you smoke a [hookah] you have time to think. It teaches you patience and tolerance, and gives you an appreciation of good company. [Hookah] smokers have a much more balanced approach to life than cigarette smokers.”
Hookah is a form of smoking tobacco through a water pipe.
The abstract of the UCLA study described hookah “a form of tobacco use, historically from the Middle East and India that is fueling a contemporary epidemic of tobacco abuse and a nationwide public health crisis, particularly among young adults.”
According to a statement issued by UCLA about the study, hookah is portrayed as an activity “heavily marketed to young adults of all ethnic backgrounds as an attractive social phenomenon and a non-addictive, healthier alternative to cigarette smoking.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly issued warnings that smoking hookah could be as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.
Hookah smoking is the only form of tobacco use not regulated in the United States, according to a UCLA statement. The statement added more than 2,000 shops sell hookah tobacco and products within California and about 175 lounges and cafés exist in the State. A majority of hookah lounges operate in the Los Angeles area and near a college or university. There are two competing hookah lounges in Westwood Village just south of the UCLA campus.
UCLA stated the study was supported by the Deloras Jones RN Scholarship Program and authored by Aurelia Macabasco-Connell of the Azusa Pacific University School of Nursing and Mary Woo of the UCLA School of Nursing.
