Thursday, October 22, 2009
Cigarettes Versus Hookah
My grandma grew up during the 1940’s and 50’s when cigarettes were becoming a popular thing in America. Many people would smoke because it was socially accepted and lots of people were doing it. The idea that cigarettes are extremely harmful for the body was an unknown fact at the time. My grandma began smoking when she was only twelve, and continued to do it all through the 40’s and 50’s. By the time she found out of the risk involved, she was already addicted. She finally quit smoking around age 40. We had our first conversation about smoking after she had just been informed that her lung cancer had progressed to stage 4 and she only had about two months left to live. When I heard about how people thought cigarettes were safe for the longest time, it made me wonder about hookah. Do people think that it is safe now, just as people though cigarettes were safe back then? Although hookah doesn’t seem to be as harmful as cigarettes, it is still tobacco which carries bad chemicals no matter how it is used. If people think that hookah is safe, won’t they be more likely to consume more and more of it at once and over a long period of time? If there are dangers associated with hookah, and people consume more because they think it is safe, can’t the effects of that eventually be more harmful than cigarettes were? It makes me wonder if in five or ten years down the road, the negative effects of hookah will be known in our culture, causing a bit of chaos. I know that in India among other countries they have been smoking hookah for many man y years and haven’t seen large medical problems because of it. However, cigarettes also have imposed different effects on different cultures all across the world. So, why? The thought is a little bit scary.
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Hookah is a very interesting subject. I think you can tell whether a hookah bar is put in for traditional use or because of recent popularity by the music they play. A lot of places will play techno or emo rock, while more traditional places will play Ravi Shankar or something a bit more mesmeric and spellbinding. And having an extremely young audience interested in hookah seems like an American anomaly. The pictures that I've seen of worldwide hookah smokers is usually mid-40's and up. Like the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, the hookah smoker is almost a wise-ol'-owl complex.
ReplyDeleteDavid--I have actually done a lot of research on the demographics of hookah smokers and the majority of people that smoke it are older. In other countries such as India, it is considered tradition and it is something that is passed down to different generations. In recent years however, younger generations are beginning to smoke more and more hookah, not only in America but in countries all over the world. I am not sure why this is. I just read a study that was done on college students in Syria and it is amazing how popular hookah smoking is there. I definitely think that in other countries, it is more traditional and has value other than the mere experience of "smoking hookah" whereas in America it is typically just something young people do just to do it.
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