Quick Facts about hookah smoking

• Compared to a single cigarette, hookah smoke is known to contain:
• Higher levels of arsenic, lead, and nickel1
• 36 times more tar
• 15 times more carbon monoxide
• Smoking a hookah requires taking longer and harder drags, increasing levels of inhaled
nicotine and carcinogens in the lungs.
• The longer the hookah session, the more nicotine and toxins one takes in.
• A 45 to 60 minute hookah session exposes the smoker to approximately the same amount
of tar and nicotine as one pack of cigarettes.
• Sharing mouthpieces without washing them can increase the risk of spreading colds, flu,
and infections—even oral herpes.
• Health risks of smoking hookahs include cancer, heart disease, lung damage, and dental
disease.5
• Do not think that if you are just visiting a hookah bar, that you are in the clear. There are still
high levels of damaging secondhand smoke to all who are present.

Becoming a smoker: Young women smoking

Generally, young people demonstrate their possession of cultural capital and secure their position within social hierarchies on the basis of what and how they consume.To this end, young women’s narratives of learning to smoke and their attempts to embody‘smoking cool’ can be read as the accrual of capital, or the acquisition of social skills and competencies that serve as markers of distinction. Some young women portrayed themselves as coming to smoking with an existing cultural knowledge or‘smoker’s capital’, a natural affinity for smoking thought to occur by virtue of one’s previous exposure to tobacco in their home or community environments. Likewise, through their experiences and interactions with other young tobacco users adolescents described building up their smoking identities and the capital which resulted from being recognized as skilled or ‘real’ smokers.

Smoking is not only a social practice but also a bodilyone, in that how the cigarette is held and smoked can demonstrate bodilycompetence . . . that must be acquired through practice’. The needto be seen as a ‘real’ smoker is particularly evident in the narratives of younger tobaccousers, some of whom are still struggling with their smoking technique and comportment,attempting to ‘get it right’ and pass as more relaxed, competent and experienced. InRenée’s case, age and gender differences contributed to her initial awkwardnesswith cigarettes, as a new smoker amongst a group of older males, friends of her then-newboyfriend.In considering the distinctions young women made between themselves and moreexperienced smokers, a Bourdieusian analysis further illustrates how adolescents signifycultural capital through mastering the largely unspoken knowledge around the correctway to smoke. Likewise, smoking can alsosymbolise one’s initiation of ‘grown up’ practice as ‘the subtle bodily schema incorporate-rated in the cultural practice of smoking are osmotic reflexes of the transition into adulthood. For Mackenzie, this consisted of moving from what she termed ‘fake’ smokingwhen first experimenting during pre-adolescence, to ‘real’ andregular smoking as a teenager. Although not everyone would admit to smoking incor-rectly or to faking it, this fake/real distinction points to the imperative of demonstratinga seemingly effortless skill with cigarettes as a key aspect of the cool adolescent’s socialrepertoire. Consequently, smoker’s capital is not only about doing it right, but is alsoabout doing it for real, as self-conscious smoking does not carry much weight amongadolescents.