Even though it is a known fact that smoking cigarette kills for about 443,000 individuals every year, the smokers from the traditional Middle Easter water pipe, called as “hookah,” and those who inhale the second hand smoke, has the risks of acquiring tobacco-related injuries.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the use of tobacco is single most preventable cause of illnesses, disability, and death in the US.

Hookah, also called as water pipe, refers to a tobacco delivery device where origins are traced to the Middle East, Asia, and the Orient. Hookah is known in various names, such as argileh, shiha, narghile, goza, and hubble-bubble. There are estimated of more than 100 million people who smoke using water pipes worldwide every day. Although the tobacco used in hookah pipes is usually flavored, and there are some movie images from Star Wars and The Matrix Reload commented that using water pipes is stylish and harmless, researchers claim that smoking water pipes may be as dangerous as smoking the cigarettes.

The Dangers of Hookah and Water Pipe Smoking

• Smoking using a water pipe still brings the addictive drug nicotine, and therefore, as toxic as cigarette smoking.
• A normal one-hour duration hookah smoking session entails inhaling 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from one cigarette.
• Hookah smokers are at high risks for similar types of cancers and other ailments as those who smoke cigarettes and cigars, such as oral cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, reduced lung function, cancer of the esophagus, and reduced fertility.
• Due to the manner of smoking, which includes the frequency of puffin, the depth of inhalation, and the duration of the smoking session, hookah smokers may even absorb more and higher concentrations of the toxins in cigarette smoke.

The common nature of smoking water pipes and hookahs has the capability to transmit infections and communicable illnesses and viruses such as tuberculosis or TB and hepatitis. Dr. Christopher Loffredo, Director of Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology at Georgetown University, claims that water pipe smokers are more exposed to more amount of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and some other toxins, compared to cigarette smokers.

Furthermore, since water pipe smokers may be inhaling more amount of tobacco smoke in their lungs as compared to cigarette smokers, Dr. Loffredo asserts that harm from smoking hookahs and water pipes could be more dangerous compared with cigarette smokers but there were not enough studies to quantify the real cancer risks.

Even though it is always fruit-flavored, hookah smoke has many of similar known toxins like cigarettes which include:

• Nicotine
• Carbon monoxide
• Tar
• Heavy metals such as copper, lead, zinc, chromium, and cadmium
• Volatile aldehydes such as formaldehyde, chemical preservative used by morticians to embalm dead bodies

Though long-term health studies on the risks of cancer using water pipes continues to be lacking, those that exist claims that the practices contain a carcinogenic role in number of body systems, which includes skin cancers and lung cancer.

Medical Treatment for Injuries Caused by Water Pipe Smoking and Hookah Pipes

The probable expenses for treating tobacco-related injury from using hookah pipes, and the continuing healthcare expenses for treating related injuries and conditions can be overwhelming. Many tobacco-related sicknesses such as lung cancer are fatal and can progress to worst in due time.

The medical costs in getting treatment, medication, and chronic care and attention can be huge financial load for the water pipe smokers and their families.

It is not only physical injury that is involve in smoking-related experience but also the mental injury that smoking victims experience from being sick with severe illness such as cancer.

Water Pipe Smoking Injury and Your Legal Rights

If you or any of your family members experienced smoking-related injuries from water pipes and hookahs, you may be entitled for compensation for present and future costs, aside from special legal damages.

Some legal factors that a lawyer can discuss with you are as follows:

• If you or your family member can recover the lost wages from work, and other personal expenses due to water pipe smoking and hookahs
• If you and your family member may be entitled to compensation for the present and future medical treatment costs
• If water pipe smoking and hookah injuries may assist you or your family member in recovering the damages for pain and suffering

Water Pipe and Hookah Smoking Injuries and Obtaining Legal Assistance

Wrongful death, personal injury, and product liability lawsuits were filed by smokers and their families against the tobacco companies for the last three centuries.

If you or any member of your family suffered an injury or ailments that may be as a result of smoking water pipes or hookahs, you must contact your doctor or your healthcare provider.

Then you may look for an experienced lawyer to discuss your legal options and any probable rights to a legal solution for any injury sustained from the tobacco.