The Dangerous Smoke from E-Cigarettes and Hookahs

Not all smokers are aware of the fact that the smoke coming from e-cigarettes and hookahs pollutes the air to a more increased level than tobacco does. Through smoking hookah, carbon monoxide is generated by smokers’ homes polluting the air to a much lesser extent. The smoke emitted by tobacco cigarettes is not as dangerous as the hookah one.

• Studies have proved that the smoke from hookahs is more dangerous than the smoke of cigarettes.
• A research has demonstrated the differences between the levels of air pollution in smokers’ homes.

Recent research from Dubai has proved that the toxins exhaled in the air after smoking hookah or e-cigarettes pollute the air twice as much compared to regular cigarettes. Harmful pollution particles called PM 2.5 are reaching your lungs, causing damage.

The study was recently published in the Tobacco Control magazine. Dr. Michael Weitzman is the lead author of the study and a professor at the New York University School of Medicine. She argued that many people believe that hookah is safer to your state of health than smoking cigarettes.

Weitzman has claimed the smoke coming from using water pipes is dangerous for those living in the same house. Children could be affected without their parents not even noticing it. Based on the studies of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a water pipe smoking session, a person is bound to inhale the smoke of 150 cigarettes.

The authors of the study have asserted that hookahs were used as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes. Another modern replacement in the US for regular cigarettes was chewing tobacco. Back in 2014, in high schools, approximately 15% of boys and 14% of males have declared they have smoked hookahs.

To establish the harm this smoke causes to air in homes; researchers have collected 33 samples of air from different homes in Dubai. Among these houses, 10 of them were the homes of non-smokers, 11 of them were inhabited by hookah smokers and 12 of them pertained to cigarette smokers. The samples were taken from the room where people smoked, but also from the nearby rooms.

Scientists have used air filters to differentiate and measure the quantities of 2.5 pollution particles, black carbon, and carbon monoxide. The levels of carbon monoxide from the rooms water pipes were smoked measured 11 part/million and the levels of PM 2.5 were of 489 micrograms/cubic meter.

In the room where people only smoked cigarettes, the levels of carbon dioxide measure 2.3 ppm and the levels of PM 2.5 were measuring 201 micrograms/cubic meter.

Image source: wikipedia