This substance would triple the risk of lung cancer and it is not cigarettes | April 9, 2025

A substance more dangerous than cigarettes.
Hookah, a mixture of nicotine, charcoal, and tobacco, is far more harmful to health than cigarettes. A recent study conducted in Vietnam and published in the journal JAMA Oncology shows that hookah use is associated with an increased risk of developing several types of cancer, including lung, nasopharyngeal, stomach, and liver cancer.

This study, which followed more than 39,000 individuals for a decade, reveals that Vietnamese waterpipe smokers face twice the risk of cancer mortality as nonsmokers, a figure even higher than that of cigarette smokers. Specifically, the risk of lung cancer is tripled and the risk of stomach cancer quadrupled among hookah users.

Consequences for Cardiovascular Health
In addition to the increased risk of cancer, hookah smoking also poses serious dangers to the cardiovascular system. In Vietnam, where tobacco is consumed pure and not mixed with molasses as in Arab countries, a hookah session, lasting an average of 40 minutes, exposes the smoker to the nicotine equivalent of more than a pack of cigarettes. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carcinogenic substances present in the smoke, also penetrate the lungs, increasing health risks. In 2016, a US study had already highlighted the extent of these dangers, showing that a hookah smoker inhales 125 times more smoke, 25 times more tar, 2.5 times more nicotine, and 10 times more carbon monoxide than a cigarette smoker. In 2018, further US research corroborated these findings, indicating that shisha has similar adverse cardiovascular effects to cigarettes, both in the short and long term.

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