HOOKAHS, E-CIGARETTES & VAPES
Hookah– water pipes that are used to smoke specially made tobacco that comes in different flavors, such as apple, mint, cherry, chocolate, coconut, licorice, cappuccino, and watermelon.
The hookah device consists of four parts:
A base, or smoke chamber, which is partially filled with water
A bowl, which contains tobacco and the heating source
A pipe that connects the bowl to the base and dips into the water in the base
A hose, a second tube in the pipe that does not dip into the water but opens into air in the base and allows users to inhale the hookah smoke
When a smoker inhales through the tube, a pressure difference forces air past the heating source and heats the tobacco, which gives off smoke. The smoke is pulled away from the tobacco and passes through the water and into the smoke chamber — from which it is inhaled by the smoker.
The World Health Organization noted in a report from 2011 that the smoke inhaled in a typical one-hour hookah session can equal 100 cigarettes or more.
The WHO report also stated that even after it has been passed through water, the tobacco smoke in a hookah pipe contains high levels of cancer-causing chemicals.
As with cigarette smoking, hookah smoking is linked to lung and oral cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses.
Hookah smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking does, possibly leading to tobacco dependence.
E-Cigarettes & Personal Vapes
Electronic cigarette: smokeless, battery operated device used to deliver nicotine with flavorings or other chemicals to the lungs.
Vaporizer pen “vape pen”: hand-held device used to generate an inhalable vapor from a solid, semi-solid, or liquid substance.
Specifically designed to vaporize THC.
Both use the same technology, leave no detectable odor, and are similar in appearance.
E-cigarettes have been around since the 1960s.
Started to take off in the last decade with more than 250 brands and flavors like watermelon, pink bubble gum and Java.
Estimated 4 million Americans use them, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association.
Researchers compared e-cigarettes to nicotine patches and other smoking cessation methods and found them statistically comparable in helping smokers quit over a six-month period
According to a CDC study: nearly 1.8 million young people had tried e-cigarettes and the number of U.S. middle and high school students e-smokers doubled between 2011 and 2012.
The FDA warns
E-cigarettes can increase nicotine addiction among young people and may lead kids to try other tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, which are known to cause disease and lead to premature death
The products may contain ingredients that are known to be toxic to humans
Conducted a preliminary analysis on some samples of electronic cigarettes and components from two leading brands.
FDA study 2009 revealed
DPA’s analysis revealed the following:
Diethylene glycol was detected in one cartridge at approximately 1%. An ingredient used in antifreeze and is toxic to humans.
Certain tobacco-specific nitrosamines which are human carcinogens were detected in half of the samples tested.
Tobacco-specific impurities suspected of being harmful to humans
The electronic cigarette cartridges that were labeled as containing no nicotine had low levels of nicotine present in all cartridges tested, except one.
Three different electronic cigarette cartridges with the same label were tested and each cartridge emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine with each puff.
The nicotine levels per puff ranged from 26.8 to 43.2 mcg nicotine/100 mL puff.
One high-nicotine cartridge delivered twice as much nicotine to users when the vapor from that electronic cigarette brand was inhaled
Health Effects
A study examining the biological effects of e-cigarettes found “strikingly similar” gene mutations in lung cells exposed to e-cig vapor as those found in smokers.
This means that although e-cigarette vapor is tobacco and tar-free and that the device does not require combustion, it could potentially increase a user’s risk of cancer.
Another study published in Germany examined secondhand emissions from several e-cigarettes in a human exposure chamber.
While the e-cigarette produced lower levels of toxins in the air for nonsmokers to breathe than the conventional cigarette, there were still elevated levels of acetic acid, acetone, isoprene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, averaging around 20% of what the conventional cigarette put into the air. Putting detectable levels of several significant carcinogens and toxins in the air
In 2012 a Florida man suffered severe injuries from an electric cigarette that exploded in his mouth. Knocked out all of his teeth and part of his tongue. The event also set fire to the room.
Gateway Drug
– Increased risk of addiction to cocaine and other drugs
– Nicotine greatly enhanced the effect of cocaine in mice
– Cocaine dependence greater in heavy smokers (>100 cigarettes before using cocaine)
– Nicotine acts as a gateway drug with the effects of addiction, especially in adolescents
What Works
– Nicotine free school campuses- school policies
– Keeping the price of nicotine products high
– Restricting nicotine devices’ marketing and other activities
– Mass media campaigns to reduce initiation
– Reinforcing a tobacco/nicotine-free norm
– Kids’ perceptions of how many people are smoking is a major factor in whether they decide to smoke.