Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Jun 14, 2007 -- The Jerusalem Cafe in Kansas City, Mo., is popular every day of the week, known across the area for its Middle Eastern cuisine. But on late weekend nights after the kitchen has closed, you're more likely to find hookahs adorning the tables than plates of hummus and pita bread.

That's because the hookah bar in the upper level is usually packed with young adults 18 and over. When the hookah bar gets crowded at night, the owners allow hookah users to smoke downstairs in the restaurant itself.

For those not in the know, hookahs are water pipes used to smoke flavored tobacco (or, in some cases, illegal substances). A user can share the device with friends and inhale the smoke through one of several tubes.

People have been smoking from hookah (or shisha) pipes for hundreds of years in the Middle East and Asia. However, the American Lung Association reports their popularity in the United States has grown steadily in recent years, especially as the number of hookah bars has increased.

Jerusalem Cafe was the first of several hookah bars around Kansas City and Lawrence, Kan. Mured Reshiq, who has run the bar since it opened nearly three years ago, said he wanted to improve the ambience, not simply to make a profit.

"To add to the culture and tradition of this place, we decided to start serving hookahs to make it be more authentic ... more like restaurants in Israel and Lebanon and Turkey," said Reshiq, who says his customers must prove they are 18.

One of his customers, 18-year-old Steve Lorenz of Kansas City, is an ex-cigarette smoker who prefers hookahs to more traditional methods.

"I think it gives you the same nicotine high with less tar (and) less pollution, and it creates a very social, thought-provoking environment," Lorenz said.

Reshiq said about 60 percent of his customers don't smoke cigarettes. He said many are drawn to hookahs because they perceive them as a natural way to smoke tobacco.

"If it was a bad thing, I don't think this tradition would have lasted until today in the world. ... It's an alternative for cigarettes, a good alternative," Reshiq said.

But the U.S. growth has doctors worried. Hookah sessions generally last 45 minutes to an hour, whereas smoking a single cigarette might take only five minutes. Because of the increased exposure (and the flavored tobacco), the World Health Organization said hookah smokers can inhale 100 to 200 times more smoke than they would from cigarettes.

Still, many teens continue to find happiness in hookahs.

Smoking hookah is "something you have to watch and make sure you're not doing it too much," said 18-year-old Nick Boehm, a recent graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kan., but he said he doesn't spend much time worrying about the health effects.

"It's not good for you, but once a week is not going to ruin my body. It's nothing I worry about," he said.

"Depending on who you listen to, supposedly it's just as bad as smoking cigarettes. A lot who are saying it's just as bad are older generations who do not want it to catch on because they're scared of it."