Secondhand Smoke Health Risk Higher in Hookah Bar Employees

A new study published in the journal "Tobacco Control" reveals how hookah bar employees are at risk due to exposure to secondhand smoke, HealthDay reports.

The study analyzed 10 hookah bar employees after they completed their work shifts, and results showed that they had inhaled high levels of carbon monoxide and nicotine during their work shift. Researchers also found that the workers had signs of inflammation linked to airway and lung diseases. The research team noted that some of the hookah bar employees showed similar test results as with heavy cigarette smokers.

"Hookah [water pipe] use is often exempt from clean indoor-air laws that protect people from secondhand smoke," study senior author, professor, and toxicologist Terry Gordon of the NYU Langone Medical Center's department of environmental medicine, explained. "Ours is the first study that links poor hookah bar air quality to damaging effects in workers, and the results recommend closer monitoring of this industry to protect the public."

"Our findings challenge the belief that secondhand exposure to hookah smoke is safe," Gordon, who is also a professor at the New York University College of Global Public Health, further stressed, as per U.S. News & World Report. "We hope that our paper leads to larger studies of indoor air quality and regulations that protect workers and patrons."

Over the past years, the use of hookah or water pipes to smoke tobacco and its flavored variety has grown especially because of the burgeoning hookah cafe industry in the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and Middle East, as per the CDC. Hookah use has also increased among the youth, as in 2010, the Monitoring the Future survey revealed that one in five male high school seniors and one in six female high school seniors in the U.S. had used a hookah in the last 12 months.

The use of hookah involves sharing the water pipe among friends. According to a study published in theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine, a hookah session can provide 1.7 times more nicotine dose and more smoke exposure than the regular cigarette.

According to the American Cancer Society, secondhand smoke is a health problem that is linked to cancers of the larynx, pharynx, nasal sinuses, brain, bladder, rectum, stomach, and breast. Constant exposure to secondhand smoke also affects the heart and blood vessels and increases the risk for heart attack and stroke among people who do not smoke.

Secondhand smoke also poses as a risk to children, as it has been linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, more severe and frequent asthma attacks, ear infections, and chronic cough, as per WebMD. For more information on how secondhand smoke can affect the body, visit cancer.org.