Hookah
A hookah or narghile is an Arabian water pipe. It is also known as a shisha (meaning "bottle" in Persian), qalian, or hubble-bubble. It is a traditional Arabic device for smoking tobacco.
It can also be used for smoking hashish, marijuana, or other smokable substance, operating on the principle of a water pipe. Although sometimes associated with illicit drug use, to use a hookah for such purposes is very taboo in modern Arabic culture.
Substances used for smoking must not be completely dry. A commonly used substance is a mixture of shisha tobacco with honey, molasses, or semi-dried fruit. Originally tobacco was mixed with one of these sweeteners to form Zhaghoul, a flavorless, moistened tobacco. Fruit-flavored shisha got its start in the late 1980s when Egyptian tobacco companies experimented with lighter, flavored tobacco as a way to transition people away from cigarette smoking. Now shisha tobacco comes in various flavours, such as apple, strawberry, melon, cappuccino or mint, and is often mixed with dried fruit extracts.
Instead of being ignited, the substance is heated to a moderate temperature, sometimes with the help of an ember. When the user inhales on the pipe, the substance smolders and fumes, producing smoke. The water pipe produces smoke from a small lump, placed on a small grid on top of the pipe and covered by a piece of aluminium foil, on top of which burning matter is placed. [The preceding sentence is confusing.] The smoke then goes down into the pipe and passes through a bottle of water (sometimes flavored) at the bottom of the shisha, which refines and cools the smoke. The smoker inhales the smoke that has passed through the bottle through a long hose with a mouth piece. The water also filters some of the tar and nicotine from the tobacco. However, most brands of shisha tobacco contain very small amounts nicotine (0.5%) and no tar.
Hookahs (narghiles) are traditionally decorated. They have a very distinctive appearance, and bear similarities to the ritual use of the American Indian peace pipe.
Compared to a cigarette, shisha is considered much smoother and more flavorful. Shisha smoking is generally believed to be less damaging to the health than cigarettes, particularly when the smoker does not inhale the smoke into the lungs. Some research has shown that since the tobacco is being heated (as opposed to burned), fewer carcinogens are produced in the smoke. It is not certain however that there are no health risks associated with shisha smoking. Research on hookah use to date has generally dealt with people smoking both cigarettes and hookah, or people who have switched from cigarette smoking to hookah use.
