This new research challenges the general perception that smoking through a water pipe filters out the toxic components of tobacco and is therefore less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

For the study, three groups of smokers, including 57 water pipe smokers, 30 deep inhalation cigarette smokers, and 51 normal inhalation cigarette smokers were identified and studied. In addition, 44 non-smokers were studied as a control group.

The researchers, led by Mohammad Hossein Boskabady at Masshad University of Medical Sciences in Iran, found that wheezing occurred among 23 percent of the water-pipe users, 30 percent of the deep-inhalation and 21.6 percent of normal-inhalation cigarette smokers, but only among 9.1 percent of non-smokers.

Coughing occurred among 21 percent, 36.7 percent and 19.6 percent of the smoking groups, compared with 6.8 percent of non-smokers.

“Our findings reveal that there were profound effects of water-pipe smoking on lung function values, which were similar to the effects observed in deep-inhalation cigarette smokers,” Boskabady said in a press release.

According to a 2005 study by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), water pipe smoke has high concentrations of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals, cancer-causing chemicals and potentially addictive levels of nicotine.

Cigarette smokers typically take eight to 12 puffs over five to seven minutes, inhaling a total of 0.5 to 0.6 of a litre of smoke.

In contrast, waterpipe sessions typically last between 20 and 80 minutes, during which the smoker may take up to 50 puffs which each range from 0.15 to one litre each.

“The waterpipe smoker may therefore inhale as much smoke during one session as a cigarette smoker would inhale consuming 100 or more cigarettes,” the WHO said.

Sources: EurekAlert!, Sapa/AFP