The dangers of cigarettes are well known, but did you know that smoking tobacco from a hookah may be even worse? During a typical 1-hour hookah smoking session, users inhale the equivalent of 100-200 cigarettes! That’s over a week’s worth of smoke for even a pack-a-day smoker!

Hookah is gaining popularity as a social pastime, and many users don’t know the risks. Hookah bars are popping up all over bustling cities and college towns, obtaining special permits to avoid indoor smoking bans. According to a University of Florida study, the trend is spreading to pre-teens and adolescents—almost 4% of middle-schoolers and 11% of high schoolers say that they have smoked from a hookah.

Hookahs—sometimes called water pipes or shishas—may feel less harmful to their users, but the tobacco is no less toxic. Hookah tobacco and smoke contain numerous toxic substances known to cause lung, bladder, and oral cancers as well as clogged arteries and heart disease. There is actually a higher amount of tobacco inhaled because of the massive amount of smoke from the hookah paraphernalia. The biggest myth about hookah is that it doesn’t contain nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarette tobacco, but hookah actually delivers large levels of nicotine to its users. Find out the facts here.

Don’t let the popularity of this “party smoke” fool you. Help us spread the word about the dangers of hookah, and tell your friends and loved ones to Be Free!