Hookah is highly addictive. Hookah smokers justify that smoking hookah is safer than cigarettes. This is not true. Though hookah may contain only 0.5 percent tobacco, but the damage is much worse than cigarettes. A cigarette is over in a few minutes – hookah smoking can last for 45 minutes to a couple of hours, at a time. One hour of hookah is equivalent to 10 cigarettes. Additionally, consuming the effects of the burning coals (that heat the tobacco) is extremely harmful.
Parents need to know these facts and communicate to their children. Studies indicate that children between ages of 13 and 15 years are vulnerable to addiction of hookah.
Even if you start off with hookah in a mild way, you will crave for the tobacco, more and more.
Geeta Chhabra
