Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog

Come to Where the Cancer Is...

And now, just when you thought your children had successfully fought off the urge to adopt the most deadly of cancer-causing habits, comes this frustrating report from the trendiest lounges where only the hippest young adults, apparently also blessed with immortality, hang out:

"Hookah Bars Finding a Place in America"

I wonder if all those folks congregating in hookah bars to smoke the narghile water pipe would be as sanguine about their future if they knew what they were inhaling. Some of the delightful chemicals found in water pipe smoke include nicotine, "tar", carbon monoxide, chrysene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, anthracene and pyrene. One research paper concludes that "narghile smoke likely contains an abundance of several of the chemicals thought to be causal factors in the elevated incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease and addiction in cigarette smokers."

Even the website Tobacco.org has a summary of another disturbing research report: "Water-pipe (narghile) smoking: an emerging health risk behavior."

It's one thing to choose to smoke after being fully informed of the health risks of cigarettes, but only an idiot would take up water pipe smoking thinking that it is safer than traditional nicotine delivery systems.

Just remember - your friendly neighborhood oncologist is always available to assist those who chose to smoke all those years ago, and now are not feeling so hot.

Posted by Dr. Craig Hildreth | link | Comments (3) |