arabian nights
5/18/2007 3:54:00 PM
mikeyikie
18 Posts
Hookah, or sometimes called argeele, shisha, and goza is a water pipe. its been used for centuries in the middle east and asia. it first came out 500 years ago in Turkey, and now "Hookah Bars" are spreading everywhere in the United States.
Its mostly teenagers and adults who use it because they enjoy the taste, and relaxing sound of bubbling, and it over all relaxes a person.
a hooka consists of..
- a base or smoke chamber, which is partially filled with water
- a bowl which vontains tobacco and the heating source (coal)
- a pipe that connects the bowl to the base and dips into the base
- a hose, a second tube in the pipe that does not dip into the water but opens into air in the base, allowing users to inhale the hookah smoke
the tobacco (often fruit flavored) is heated by coals and the resulting smoke passes through the tubes and water so that it cools down by the time a person inhales it. the tobacco is usually 30% tobacco and 70% fruit flavorings, molasses, and/ or honey.
- nicotine- addictive chemical in tobacco products, and the hooka smoke delivers equal or greater amounts of nicotine compared to cigaretts, meaning hookah can be more addictive
- tar- the brown sticky material that leads to cancer, emphysema, and other health problems as well as causes stains on teeth and fingers.
- carbon monoxide- colorless, odorless gas that is toxic to humans, but the amount produced depends on the size of the hookah, the pipe, and the type of coal.
although many people believe that hookah is much healthier than cigaretts because the water filters out the "bad stuff" in tobacco smoke, this isn't true. an hour session of smoking hookah is just as bad as smoking 100-200 times the vollume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.