Who smokes the hookah
A 2022 study analysed surveys of teenagers in 72 countries from 2010-2019. On average 6.9% had smoked a hookah at least once in the previous 30 days. Rates were highest in the WHO European region (10.9%) and the Eastern Mediterranean (10.7%).1
In Germany, according to a Robert Koch Institute study, 28.9% of teenagers aged 12 to 17 had tried a hookah.2
At one large US university, 9.5% of students had smoked a hookah in the previous 30 days (a 2008 study).3
Big business
In November 2020 the British fund Kingsway Capital took over Al Eqbal, owner of Al Fakher, in a deal valued at more than $1.4 billion. The factory had been bought for $11 million in 2006.456
New devices
In 2023 the journal Tobacco Control described electric heaters as a new generation of hookahs. A 2019 study from Beirut showed that they cut carbon monoxide but increase acrolein.78
The electronic hookah, in which a device makes vapour instead of burning tobacco, is described in a patent application published in 2013.9
What science says
According to the WHO, one hookah session can mean inhaling as much smoke as from 100 or more cigarettes. Water cools the smoke but does not clean it.10
In 2023 the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control conference again had a report on rules for the contents and disclosure of waterpipe tobacco.11
On the journey through 14 stations
How we know
- 1Frontiers in Public Health (2022), upotreba nargile među adolescentima / waterpipe use among adolescents, 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1052519
- 2Robert Koch-Institut, "Smoke on the water: Wasserpfeifenkonsum bei Jugendlichen in Deutschland" (KiGGS Welle 1)
- 3Primack i sar. / et al. (2008), Annals of Behavioral Medicine (PMC3004534)
- 4Slaughter and May (2020), "Kingsway Capital on the take-private of Al Eqbal Investment Company"
- 5Latham & Watkins (20. 11. 2020), "Latham advises on financing for Kingsway Capital take-private of Al Fakher"
- 6Oxford Business Group (2014), "Al Eqbal Investment Company: Tobacco and cigarettes"
- 7Ben Taleb i sar. / et al. (2023), Tobacco Control, "Next generation waterpipe devices: the rise of electrical heating elements"
- 8El Hourani i sar. / et al. (2019), Chemical Research in Toxicology: električno grijanje i ugalj / electric vs charcoal heating
- 9Google Patents, US9095174B2 "Electronic hookah" (US 2013/0032159)
- 10WHO (2005), "Advisory note: waterpipe tobacco smoking"
- 11WHO FCTC (2023), FCTC/COP/10/7: sastav i označavanje proizvoda, uključujući nargilu / contents and disclosure, including waterpipe