A hookah is a water pipe
used to smoke tobacco
through cooled water.
The tobacco is heated
in the bowl at the top
of the hookah and the
smoke is filtered through
the water in the base of
the hookah. ⁸

One puff from a hookah
can fill your lungs with
12 times more smoke
than one hit from
one cigarette.¹

One study shows that
a typical one-hour long
waterpipe smoking
session involves inhaling
over 100 times the volume
of the smoke inhaled
with a single cigarette.²

Smoking hookah fills your
body with 8 times more
carbon monoxide than
a cigarette.³

Hookah smoke contains
20 times more tar than
cigarette smoke.⁴

Sharing mouthpieces
without washing them
can increase the risk of
spreading colds, flu,
and infections—even
oral herpes.⁵

Health risks of smoking
hookahs include heart
disease, cancer, lung
damage, and dental
disease.⁶

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.⁷

Shisha is the tobacco
smoked in a hookah. It
is a very moist and sticky
tobacco that has been
soaked in honey or
molasses.⁹