Smoking Hookah and Diving

[lord1234]

Hookah smoke is similar to cigar smoke....you don't inhale the smoke, just taste it. It doesn't ever hit your lungs(or it shouldn't be). Also has a nicotine rating of 0%. Would this still be detrimental to diving? Or not as detrimental as regular smoking?

 

[Nobby]

Only if you tried to do it underwater!

 

[barc802]

Only if you tried to do it underwater!

Isn't that what a Hookah setup is for? :fro:

 

[Nobby]

Isn't that what a Hookah setup is for? :fro:

Look it up in a dictionary...then try again.

 

[barc802]

Look it up in a dictionary...then try again.

It was a joke! Ever heard of Hookah diving?
http://www.keeneengineering.com/pamphlets/howhookah.html

 

[Nobby]

It was a joke! Ever heard of Hookah diving?
http://www.keeneengineering.com/pamphlets/howhookah.html

Teehee, sorry I thought that you were being dense...turns out it was me then huh.

 

[barc802]

Teehee, sorry I thought that you were being dense...turns out it was me then huh.

no prob i guess i should have put a haha after it.

 

[lord1234]

it was a serious question...any chance for a serious response?

 

[PurpleRonald]

it was a serious question...any chance for a serious response?

Actually 'hookah smoke' is frequently 'inhaled' (it's never been one of my treats...)and from what I've read...it's usually not a problem because it's used so infrequently...as in once in a blue moon or as part of a ritual or ceremony...BUT I would suspect it is an irritant...and as as an irritant...it will hurt rather than help one's airways. I gave up cigarettes after many years...and now and then smoke a pipe(don't inhale) but pipe smoke's 2nd hand smoke is more lethal than the second hand smoke of a cigarette(something to do with the temperture and volume of the smoke)...and will inflame the sinuses moreso than cigarette smoke. I am not familiar with hookah/bong smoke...but other cigarettes such as bidis/clove cigarettes are sometimes even more lethal than regular tobacco ie. more tar and other irritants...
One might not inhale a cigar...but a cigar will give you a blast of noninhaled nicotine simular to an entire pack of cigarettes and stiffens the ol' heart... I've heard it said that if the lung problems don't get ya...the heart problems will! While I speak lightly about the 'tobacco pipe' I don't mean to sound cavalier. A 1964 US study concluded that nonsmokers live longer than cigarette smokers and cigar smokers...but that pipe smokers lived longer than nonsmokers. There's a grain of truth to it...but it is also misleading. Einstein was a famous pipe smoker and during lectures would bum cigarette tobacco from students and put it in his pipe... and perhaps lifelong pipe smokers like him(who are very rare and not former cigarette smokers) have lower stress levels than 'nonsmokers'. A study(i can't site it right off...but it was British) seemed to conclude that non-inhaling pipe smokers(who were former chronic cigarette smokers)cut their lung cancer risk in half by switching to a pipe. The good news is that they cut their risk in half! The bad news is that they only cut their risk in half...and that it's still much higher than non-smokers. Oh well...and everyone is unique ; ) It's BEST to not smoke...but for some of us(if not all of us in one way or another)the damage/mutagenic damage is in a sense already done...by many years of tobacco dependence. While some may pity me - I would just say that go ahead and pity me and while you pity me...please tell me how one becomes 'immortal'. Something will kill us all...ie. fatty food, bad genes, a broken heart, a great white shark... About 20% of chronic smokers develop COPD...and I myself have in fact an early stage of it(my spirometry test is basically normal...but at the lower end of normal) It's fascinating... There's all sorts of things that interplay. For example, my sinuses were damaged(lots of scar tissue from a botched oral surgery that required sinus surgery) that may have caused increased postnasal crap...that in turn caused a very mild asthma... There's some sort of link between GERD and asthma...I almost hate the term 'asthma' because it's so broad...and in many cases is more of an 'effect' than a thing unto itself... Oh well, that's my layman's speculation and a physician can add a lot more and correct me... If you find some harmless and beneficial hookah smoke that's actually good for your lungs - let me know! We can make a fortune! If tobacco was a healthy - I'd be godlike ; ) My deepest dive was a mixed gas dive in 1978 to 225 ft. that with DC Stops lasted about 2.5 hrs. Before that dive - as in about 2 wks before that dive - it was important to 'live cleanly' ie. exercise , get plenty of rest, no partying... because there are other factors aside from just 'lung irritation and perceived breathability' ie. one wants to be functioning at one's best and to be more resistant to 'narcosis.' Any Deep Dive(over 33ft.imho) should imho never be preceded by any sort of smoking or drinking or unhealthy stress... When I go skydiving now...I am always surprised by the number of 'smokers'; I think it has something to do with a lot of us being 'type T personality-adrenaline junkies' being more at risk to becoming smokers. We 'like the stimulation'. We started young.
Wish me well! I'll know in about a month if I'm still fit to scuba dive. If not - I've decided to free dive and enjoy the shallows.

 

[lord1234]

sorry for my inaccurate remarks:
"The smoker inhales this smoke through a long hose with a mouth piece. This filtration is suggested to filter out, in part, tar and nicotine from the tobacco. However, most brands of shisha tobacco generally contain a mention saying "no tar" and very small amounts of nicotine (0.5%) to begin with." from your wikipedia link.