What is a water pipe?
A water pipe is a machine for smoking special pipe tobacco with a fruittaste. For the smoking of marijuana or hashish use aspecial kind of waterpipe, a so called Bong. In the Middle East the smoking of the pipe has already been tradition for 900 years and is smoked in many restaurants and cafes. Research [1] has shown that waterpipe is at least as harmful as a cigarette. In other languages a water pipe is called: hookah, huka, hooka, chicha, shisha, shishah, shesa, sheesha, narghile, nargile, nargila or hubbly bubbly. History For hundreds of years the water pipe is a known phenomenon in Arab countries, Turkey, India, Pakistan and parts of China. Over the past hundred years its popularity decreased and the water pipe was regarded as something for older men in coffee shops. But the last few years the habit is again on rise, even among young people. According to scientists every day 100 million people smoke a water pipe. In Israel, sharing a water pipe is a way for Jewish and Arab youth to bring two cultures together. A survey among 6000 teenagers showed that 40 percent of the Jewish teenagers and 31 percent of their Arab peers had smoked water pipe. Health risk
CHICAGO - 'Smoking through a water pipe is certainly not as harmless as many users think. The concentration of carcinogenic and addictive substances in tobacco for water pipes could be much higher than those in cigarettes. " This was written in an article in the American journal Pediatrics, written by Barry Knishkowy of the Israeli Ministry of Health. Knishkowy said that smoking waterpipe is relatively cheap and many users think wrongly that smoke which is cooled by the water contains less harmful substances. Higher nicotine The blood of waterpipe smokers showed an for times higher concentration of carbon monoxide, than the blood of cigarette smokers. Also, waterpipetobacco contains more nicotine than tobacco for cigarettes. Waterpipesmokers are, unlike sigarettenrokers, at higher risk of infections through the shared smoking with others. Because many waterpipesmokers add alcohol, marijuana or hashish in the tobacco, there's also a risk on addiction. Functioning A water pipe consists basically of four parts: * Tobacco bowl: the smoking stuff is put in here; * Metal shaft: This runs from below the tobacco bowl into the glass tank, just below the water level; * Glass tank: filled with liquid (usually water, but also alcohol can put in for a double effect); * Hose: flexible hose with tip wherethrough the smoke is sucked up. The glass tank should be filled with water, until the metal shaft is about two centimeters under water. In the tobacco bowl one puts healthy smoking stuff, such as fruittobacco. It will then be covered with aluminum foil in which holes are pricked. After that a burning coal is put on it. By sucking the fit a vacuum is created on the liquid. Herethrough air is sucked through the head of the pipe via the liquid. The condition is that the beaker is perfectly airtight to prevent that the smoke thins. |
