Informative Speech - Hookah Pipe

Maybe you’ve seen these in a movie? At a club? At a party? Or if you’re from the city like I am, maybe you’ve driven past one of these bars or lounges. Still not ringing a bell? I’m talking about the water pipe commonly used to smoke tobacco called the Hookah. The hookah has become very trendy over the years, but most people still do not know much about it. The origin, how much it has evolved over time through society, or even the health risks. The hookah originated during the Safavid Dynasty in the Persian Empire, which extended into India to where it also spread in that time, as Alters & Schiffs say in their “Healthy Living” article. It is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco called shisha in which the vapor or smoke is passed through a water base ‒ which is often made out of glass ‒ before inhalation. After India, it also became big in Turkey. It is said that the Turkish perfected the mechanism and style to look similar to what it looks like today. Years after they perfected it, style was added to it and that’s when the flowery crystal like look came to be. The hookah has become a very important factor in the coffee shop culture. It is common to smoke herbal fruits after or within meals. According to Rashid Gatrad in his article “Hookah Smoking”, around 100 million people use a hookah daily worldwide. In the past two decades, this method of tobacco smoking has increased in the USA, says McDermott in his article “Water pipe Tobacco Smoking among Youth”. The combination of flavored smoke, and the mechanism itself have made water pipe smoking attractive to women and men. It is equally appealing to those who smoke cigarettes and those who do not. Although the hookah is commonly used for smoking herbal fruits, it has recently become increasingly used for smoking tobacco, and aromatic tobacco. The hookah is usually shared among family members including children, friends, and guests. Hookah establishments are found everywhere now and is slowly but surely becoming accepted by society. Family attitudes towards children smoking tobacco in water pipes are reported to be far more permissive than attitudes to cigarette smoking. I’ve witnessed this first hand many times.
Although water pipe smoking is perceived by its new generation of users to be less addictive and hazardous to health than cigarette smoking, researchers draw opposed conclusions. According to McDermott in his article “Water pipe Tobacco Smoking among Youth”, research demonstrates that numerous toxic agents, including carcinogens, heavy metals, other particulate matter, and high levels of nicotine, are efficiently delivered through water pipes. Individuals who use a hookah as a method of smoking tobacco are also exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide due to the charcoals used to heat the tobacco. Alarmingly, one hour of hookah smoking is equivalent to inhaling up to 200 cigarette puffs, as stated on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, while an average cigarette is only 20 puffs.
The hookah started as a way to kill time among the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean and to smoke in between or after meals for its appealing flavor and smooth smoke. It has changed and evolved over time, as anything does, just as the ability to research has. Health risks weren’t a concern in the time and era when hookah’s started, but now you know most of them. Hookah every so often shouldn’t be a problem, but as anything else, too much of it can hurt you in the long run.