Hookah smoking is as dangerous for your health as cigarette smoking provoking harmful effect of poisonous substances including carbon monoxide and nicotine, as the scientists from Virginia University and American University in Beirut (Lebanon).

Hookah, as well as tobacco may lead to heart diseases and nicotine addiction, affirm the specialists. During the last 8 – 10 years the popularity of hookah in western countries has raised greatly, especially among the youths from 18 to 24. The majority of young people are sure that hookah contains less nicotine and gums than tobacco, so has no obvious dangerous effects. Medics have found exact scientific results contradicting the myth about the safety of hookah smoking: according to the results of their studies, hookah smoke contains the same harmful chemicals as cigarettes do, and raises the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction and development of nicotine addiction.

During a two-year period the doctors have been observing hookah smokers in Lebanon aged from 18 to 50. Each volunteer was smoking tobacco for 45 minutes, first with the help of hookah, then he had to smoke one cigarette. The levels of nicotine and carbon monoxide in the participants’ blood were immediately measured, and cardiac rhythm was fixed. It turned out that the concentration of carbon monoxide during hookah smoking was three time higher in comparison with one smoked cigarette. The peak levels of nicotine were the same both in case of hookah and cigarette smoking. Analyzing the quantity and amount of each draw, smoke inhalation is 48 times higher during hookah smoking in comparison with cigarettes. Besides, hookah smoke contains substances promoting the development of cancer and other dangerous diseases, as the medics warn.