Hookah trend on the rise, especially among teens

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Craig MacFarlane isn't a smoker and says he never will be. But that doesn't keep him from hankering for hookah.

The 18-year-old from Danville, Calif., enjoys getting together with his friends regularly to use a hookah, a practice he picked up during his freshman year of college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Smoking tobacco concoctions from hookahs — water pipes that originated in Turkey more than 500 years ago — is increasing in popularity among young people as evidenced by the rise in urban lounges devoted to hookah smoking, including a number in Seattle.

The trend has health professionals concerned that, despite the claims of young users, smoking from hookahs is just as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.

"People, especially kids, think that because hookah smoke is water-cooled and filtered, it is safe, but that's not true," says Serena Chen, executive director of the American Lung Association of California's east San Francisco Bay Area. "Hookah smoking is just as dangerous as cigarette smoking."

She busts a popular myth bandied about by young smokers by citing a recent study from the American University in Beirut that determined, in comparable studies with cigarettes, that hookah smoke contains significant quantities of the same chemicals that make cigarette smoke harmful. In addition, hookah smoke contains the same cancer-causing particulates found in secondhand smoke, and 100 times the amount of lead as in regular cigarettes, she says.

"We're really concerned about it," Chen says. "I keep hoping it's just a fad that will go away."

It's hard to call something that's been around for 500 years a fad, but even longtime smokers — like Adnan Abusharkh, owner of San Francisco's Pride of the Mediterranean cafe and hookah bar — say it has been gaining popularity in the past few years, especially among young people.

Smoking the hookah, also sometimes called narghile, shisha or hubble bubble, is a way to relax after a meal and to show respect to guests, Abusharkh says. His hookah bar is so successful he plans to open another one.

If he does, chances are many of his customers will be people like Chris Paizis, who just finished his freshman year at Chapman College in Southern California.

"It's neat to smoke hookah," says the 18-year-old Paizis. "It gives out an immediate exotic vibe."

Nikki Deguzman, 17, also likes the social aspect of sharing a hookah pipe.

"You can't do it alone," she explains. "It makes it an immediate event."

MacFarlane says many teens who are too young to get into one of the local hookah bars purchase pipes — which range in price from $30 to about $100 — and find their own place to smoke.

Chen and other health professionals are frightened by the allure of hookah smoking.

"The hookah craze can result in young kids getting addicted to nicotine," she says. "Anything that hooks kids into harmful habits scares me."

She also says studies have shown that smoking hookah pipes can lead to serious disorders such as bronchitis, emphysema, heart disease and viruses transferred by the pipe's previous users.

Still, since when have young people been scared off by warnings?

"Teenagers and young adults feel they are invincible," Chen says. "It's the same message we are trying to get across about cigarette smoking, or cigar smoking: It's not glamorous, it's dangerous."