Hookah tobacco smoke contains more toxins than cigarette smoke

New research has found that smoking tobacco from hookahs, the traditionally Middle-Eastern pipes that involve drawing tobacco smoke through water before being inhaled, causes the user to inhale a much larger amount of toxins than from cigarettes.

The meta-analysis, funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, was led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The team narrowed down 542 previously published articles related to cigarette and hookah smoking to 17 studies which contained enough reliable and sufficient data to analyze the toxins inhaled during both forms of smoking.

From this analysis the team found that when comparing one hookah session with one cigarette, more harmful toxins are present during the hookah session, with the user inhaling 125 times the smoke, 25 times the tar, 2.5 times the nicotine and 10 times the carbon monoxide in comparison.

Read more: CTVNEWS.CA