 Man holding a narghile (hookah) A hookah is a traditional Middle Eastern or Asian device for smoking tobacco. It is also known as a water pipe, narghile, shisha, or hubble-bubble. Recently, "hookah bars" serving traditional flavored tobacco have appeared as a curiosity in the Western world.
Technique
Like the bong, another form of water pipe, the hookah can also be used for smoking hashish, marijuana, opium, or other smokable substances. However, this use is not traditional and mostly limited to the Western world. This association with illicit drug use has led to the device's inclusion in many drug paraphernalia laws in the United States.
Substances used for smoking hookah need not be completely dry. The most commonly used substance (known as tobamel or maassel) is a 1:2 mixture of tobacco with a sweet substance such as honey, molasses, or semi-dried fruit. Originally tobacco was mixed with one of these sweeteners to form jurâk (e.g. Zhaghoul brand), a flavorless, moistened tobacco. Fruit-flavored shisha got its start in the late 1980s when Egyptian tobacco companies experimented with flavored tobacco as a way to transition people away from cigarette smoking. Today, shisha tobacco comes in many flavours, such as apple, strawberry, melon, cappuccino or mint, and is often mixed with dried fruit extracts.
In a hookah, tobamel (maassel) is not directly ignited but is heated to a high temperature using lit coals. These coals rest on a metal mesh or perforated aluminum foil which covers a clay or metal bowl containing the tobacco. When a user inhales through the hose, the coals heat the shisha, producing smoke. The smoke then enters the body of the hookah, passing through a glass receptacle containing water which filters and cools the smoke. The smoker inhales this smoke through a long hose with a mouth piece. This filtration is suggested to filter out, in part, tar and nicotine from the tobacco. However, most brands of shisha tobacco generally contain a mention saying "no tar" and very small amounts of nicotine (0.5%) to begin with.
Due to the mechanics of the hookah, multi-person hookahs exist, where multiple hoses lead to a single tobacco chamber. These are popular in the Western world where hookah smoking is a social phenomenon.
Style and Health Caterpillar using a hookah (from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) Hookahs are traditionally ornately decorated. They have a very distinctive appearance, and bear similarities to the ritual use of the American Indian peace pipe. Relative to other methods of smoking tobacco, hookah smoke is considered smoother and more flavorful. The quantity of smoke inhaled at one time is also much greater. Shisha smoking is generally believed to be less damaging to health than cigarettes. Research has shown that since the tobacco is being heated (as opposed to burned), fewer carcinogens are produced in the smoke.
Many of the various names of the hookah are of Persian or Arab origin. "Narghile" is from the Persian word nārgil, or "coconut", itself borrowed from Sanksrit nārikera. "Shisha" is from the Persian word shishe, or "bottle".
References - Chaouachi, Kamal. Doctoral thesis: Narghile (hookah): a Socio-Anthropological Analysis. Culture, Conviviality, History and Tobaccology of a Popular Tobacco Use Mode. (Université Paris X, 2000, 420 pages.)Available: [1] (http://www.anrtheses.com.fr)
- Chaouachi, Kamal. Le narguilé. Anthropologie. (Paris, L'Harmattan, 1997, 262 pages). Available: [2] (http://www.editions-harmattan.fr)
- Chaouachi, Kamal. Le Monde du Narguilé. (Paris, Ed. Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002, 156 pages, colour). Available: [3] (http://www.amazon.fr)
- Chaouachi Kamal. Review on Hookah Smoking: Title: "Shisha, hookah. Le narguilé au XXIe siècle. Bref état des connaissances scientifiques". Le Courrier des Addictions 2004 (Oct) ; 6 (4): 150-2. Available: [4] (http://www.vivactis-media.com/default/som_revue.asp?NumRevue=17)
- Lubin, J.H. et al. Risk of lung cancer among cigarette and pipe smokers in southern China. Int. J. of Cancer 1992; 51 (3)3: 390-5.
- Radwan GN et al. Review on Waterpipe Smoking. J. Egypt. Soc. Parasitol. 2003 Dec; 33 (3 Suppl):1051-71. *Rakower, J., Fatal, B. Study of Narghile Smoking in Relation to Cancer of the Lung. Br J Cancer. 1962 Mar; 16:1-6.
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