Study warns one hookah session delivers 25 times the tar of one cigarette

Hitting up the hookah with friends is an increasing draw as fewer young people smoke cigarettes, but that doesn't mean such smokers are in the clear. In fact, they're inhaling quite a bit of toxicity.

A recent meta-analysis of pre-existing data led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found that, "...compared with a single cigarette, one hookah session delivers approximately 125 times the smoke, 25 times the tar, 2.5 times the nicotine and 10 times the carbon monoxide."

Whether that's "better" or "worse" than smoking cigarettes is hard to say. A frequent cigarette smoker may smoke 20 cigarettes in a day, whereas a frequent hookahsmoker may participate in a few sessions per day.

See photos of people smoking hookah:

Though comparisons aren't exact, the data comes at time when hookah's popularity has grown.

According to a write-up of the findings, "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that, for the first time in history, past 30-day use ofhookah tobacco was higher than past 30-day use of cigarettes among U.S. high school students."

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