Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: LIFE

Media Credit: Bo Joplin Denton local, Teddy Logsdon smokes the hookah while relaxing with friends at Natalie's Cafe on W. Hickory.

Smoking hookah tobacco is a rising trend among many college students as a means of socializing, but according to Peggy Foyle, few are aware of the risks involved.
Foyle, assistant director of the NT Student Health and Wellness Center and director of Meadows Center for Health Resources, said she would not recommend smoking hookah just as she wouldn't recommend smoking cigarettes, but she understands why it has become so popular.
"I think it is a social and cultural thing for many people," she said. "It has an exotic atmosphere, which I think is appealing to many students."
She said that because foreign particles are inhaled into the lungs, however, it is unsafe.
The wellness center subscribes to a network called BACCHUS, or Boosting Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students. This network recently put out a collection of studies called the "White Paper," which explains the health risks involved with smoking hookah tobacco.
According to the study, "smoking hookah is not a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes."
Some of the health risks potentially caused by hookah tobacco described in the study include lung, oral, esophageal, stomach and bladder cancer.
Some other common health problems related to hookah that the "White Paper" described were heart disease, upper respiratory problems and nicotine dependence. Herpes, mononucleosis, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infections can arise from sharing the same mouthpiece of the hose connected to the smoke chamber of the hookah, according to the report.
Though many hookah bars sterilize or replace these mouthpieces after each use, they are not required by law to do so, which is where most of the cases of infection can occur.
The study also said hookah smoking may "serve as a gateway to cigarette smoking in later years."
Moe Zaki is the owner of Kush at 1302 W. Hickory St., a new hookah bar that opened on Aug. 15. The bar prides itself on its 162 flavors of hookah tobacco, which Zaki said is the most in the nation.
"Hookah isn't as bad as cigarettes, but it's not milk," Zaki said. "If you blow air out from a cigarette into a napkin and do the same thing with hookah 10 times, you will have a black ring from the cigarette and the hookah doesn't even compare."
According to Zaki, there are no chemicals in hookah tobacco and it is .05 percent nicotine.
The study, however, found that hookah smoke has "high concentrations of carbon monoxide, nicotine tar and heavy metals."
It also said the sources used to heat the tobacco can produce toxicants such as carbon monoxide and carcinogens.
Austin junior Caitlin Pape has worked at Natalie's Café Hookah Lounge as the hookah technician for about a year-and-a-half. In addition to hookah, Natalie's Café Hookah Lounge offers traditional Middle Eastern food in the form of desserts and sandwiches and serves different types of Turkish coffee and tea.
"From what I understand, yeah, it's still smoking but I think it's slightly not as bad," Pape said. "It doesn't do anything to you like give you a high or a buzz. If anything, it makes you feel kind of sleepy."
According to the "White Paper," hookah bars, cafes and restaurants have become popular social gathering places for young smokers and their numbers have increased dramatically in recent years.
Zaki said people can become much more addicted to socializing than to the hookah tobacco itself.
"It's easier to go to a hookah bar if you're not 21 than to find a fake ID and try to get into a real bar," Zaki said. "It's not illegal to hang out in here and it's socializing without alcohol. I think that's why there are so many hookah bars in college towns."
Besides hookah, Kush offers a wide variety of Mediterranean-style food, organic teas and coffees. People of all ages are welcome to come in and eat, but the customer must be 18 to smoke.
One thing that Zaki does not allow in his hookah bar, however, is cigarette smoking.
"There could be 70-80 hookahs going on in here and a non-smoker would still be able to breathe comfortably," he said. "If there were just two people smoking cigarettes, then the whole place would smell like an ashtray. I think that right there tells you something."

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