Ryan Boulton was the awkward kid in the corner, unable to carry on a conversation of any kind, when he first arrived at Ohio University three years ago. That characteristic soon went up in smoke thanks to an unexpected source — hookah.
“Hookah changed my life,” Boulton said. “Since I started coming to (Athens’) Pyramids, I can actually carry on conversations with people instead of being the awkward kid I once was.”
Boulton, who is taking a year off from school, is the assistant manager at Athens’ Pyramids, a local hookah bar.
Boulton added that he now substitutes hookah for cigarettes. In addition, he claims that smoking shisha helps him relax, also cutting down his desire for cigarettes.
For Ashley Massey, a junior studying pre-physical therapy, the various flavors and social world surrounding hookah were not as enticing. Intimidated by what she believed were health risks — including cancer, addiction and respiratory problems — she refused to light up and spent the first two years of her college career avoiding the small bar at 5 Mill St.
“I grew up around parents that smoked, and I viewed any type of smoking in such a negative way,” Massey said. “I wouldn’t exactly judge people who were smoking it, but I was dead-set on not touching the stuff. I was afraid of getting addicted to the nicotine.”
This past fall, Massey decided to try hookah and is now one of the 17 percent of OU students who, according to OU’s most recent Alcohol and Other Drug Survey of Undergraduate Students, smoke hookah. She now visits Pyramids two to three times a week and owns her own hookah
“I’ve had a few friends who were frequents, and I figured, if I wanted to hang out with them, I should be there,” Massey said. “I just fell in love with it. Plus, smoking hookah really isn’t that bad for you.”
The belief that hookah isn’t bad for you is what attracts many to start smoking hookah. Yet Kris Washington, the assistant director of the Campus Involvement Center for Health Promotions, said that, contrary to popular opinion, smoking hookah is more harmful than cigarettes.
“It’s held in the lungs longer and research shows that it has more extensive health effects than cigarettes do,” she said. “But if you sit down and think it isn’t that bad, then why not?”
Washington also referred to a study conducted by POWER — a nonprofit student organization of peer educators who address health and lifestyle issues facing college students — which discovered that a one-hour hookah session is the equivalent to smoking one pack of cigarettes.
In 2005, the World Health Organization found similar statistics, reporting that, during one hour of smoking hookah, participants inhale the same amount of smoke as smoking 100 cigarettes.
“It doesn’t really surprise me,” Washington said. “Hookah involves tobacco, and no matter how you look at it, it’s bad for you. You can get addicted to anything that has nicotine in it.”
Washington added that, although frequent hookah smokers might not feel the negative effects of smoking immediately, they still could surface later in life, just as with smoking cigarettes.
“Of course, you won’t see effects right away,” she said. “It will be a longer period of time until you’ll see effects that include cancer, heart disease, worsened asthma conditions and bacterial infections.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hookah smokers are at risk for many of the same diseases as their cigarette-smoking counterparts, including oral cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer and cancer of the esophagus. Hookah smokers also are exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide because of the coals used to burn the tobacco.
Mary Kate Gallagher, a peer health education leader with POWER and a junior studying community health, has rejected the hookah world because of the health risks associated with it.
“There is this myth that hookah is safer than cigarettes, but it’s not,” Gallagher said. “It might be more social, which would naturally attract people to hookah, and that’s great, but students should know the risks. There are safe ways to drink alcohol or go out to parties, but there is no safe way to smoke a cigarette or a hookah.”
Despite the scientific evidence backing the claim that hookah is unhealthful, Abbie Reed, manager at Athens’ Pyramids and a junior studying psychology, considers herself a social smoker after smoking for more than six years.
Reed said she believes that hookah is not only healthier for the body that cigarettes but also provides a positive atmosphere for students.
“Overall, hookah has been proven to be safer. I’d say I’m not going to get cancer because I’m less likely to get it than cigarette smokers,” Reed said. “People who smoke hookah come here to relax, do homework and just hang out. It’s a way to stop getting drunk, do something actually legal, stop being hungover, do homework and stay out of trouble.”
Though health officials and hookah lovers disagree on the effects of smoking shisha, the groups agree in regard to the overall lack of knowledge on hookah.
Dr. Terry Koons, associate director of the Campus Involvement’s Health Promotion Center, said he believes this is due to the population’s unfamiliarity and absence of experience with shisha.
“There is just less education on the matter,” Koons said. “It’s why POWER decided to raise awareness a few years ago and let people know that smoking hookah isn’t necessarily safer than smoking cigarettes.”
And while the Campus Involvement Center is preparing to continue raising awareness about hookah, laws passed by the state government have made it more difficult for hookah bars to open in Ohio.
According to chapter 3794 of Ohio Revised Code, which defines the indoor-smoking ban, a hookah bar is considered a retail tobacco store, meaning it receives more than 80 percent of its revenue from tobacco or smoke-based products.
At the end of each year, hookah bars must fill out paperwork proving that the vast majority of their revenue is still from tobacco-based products. Those files are then evaluated by the state, which is also responsible for initial law regulation.
“There was actually a hookah bar that just opened in Canton as well who surpassed the law due to their use of herbal shisha instead of tobacco,” Reed said.
Although individual cities are not required to enforce the smoking ban, businesses can be investigated if a formal complaint is filed.
“We did receive a few complaints about Pyramids when the law was originally passed,” said Chuck Hammer, the administrator of Athens’ Health Department. “But after our investigation, we found that no violations had been committed. We haven’t received many (complaints) since.”
Hammer added that, if another hookah bar were to open, it would need to meet the requirements of the law.
“You could open another bar, but they would have to meet the law and would have to qualify as a retail tobacco store,” Hammer said. “They would also have to operate as the sole occupant in a single building that is approved by the city.”
Exceptions to the smoking ban continue to upset health advocates such as Koons and Washington, who still do not understand why Pyramids remains open nor believe that hookah is a healthful alternative to cigarettes.
“It’s sad that so many think that it’s healthy and that it’s good for you. I’ve never actually come across any study that says hookah is in any way healthy or healthier for you and I don’t know where people get that idea,” Washington said. “I’m not even sure that hookahs are regulated. It bothers me that (Pyramids) even got past the law.”
Additionally, hookah bars are not required by law to post FDA warnings for tobacco use or the potential allergic reactions caused by the herbal flavoring.
“Those things might be true, but we have the occasional person who will ask if hookah is bad for you and we will admit that, yes, yes it is,” Reed said. “But so is soda, so is going and inhaling polluted air, and so is a cheeseburger at McDonald’s. It might be bad for you, but you could be doing worse things like drinking and breaking the law.”
lf328610@ohiou.edu
