Editor,
I was greatly dismayed to see the front-page photo of two UNM students sharing a hookah full of strawberry-flavored tobacco in Tuesday's Daily Lobo. Using this photo as filler in the same fashion the Lobo runs pictures of students playing Frisbee, skateboarding or sharing a meal in the SUB serves to reinforce the commonly held misperception that hookah smoking is an innocuous activity.
Too many individuals regard hookahs as a safe alternative to cigarettes because the smoke is filtered as it passes through the water. But according to Thomas Eissenberg, a researcher at the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, the reality is "carbon monoxide is present in large amounts in smoke from these pipes, as is nicotine and the compounds referred to as 'tar.' In fact, carcinogen exposure in hookah smoke is equal to, or more than that found in cigarettes."
Individuals who think they can bypass addiction by choosing hookahs over cigarettes should heed research findings that tobacco used for water-pipe smoking is 2 to 4 percent nicotine versus 1 to 3 percent for cigarettes.
Added to the potential for addiction and risk of cancer associated with hookah smoking are two more undesirable consequences: dental disease - researchers found that 30 percent of hookah smokers suffered smoking-related tooth diseases, compared to 24 percent of cigarette smokers and 8 percent of nonsmokers - and an increased risk for herpes and other ailments spread through saliva when sharing pipes.
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Jill Anne Yeagley
Program Manager
UNM Campus Office of
Substance Abuse Prevention
