Hookah, chillum smoking more toxic than cigarette: Study

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Jaipur, October 2: : Traditional hookah and chillum are more injurious to health than cigarette, a study has said. The study underlines that the old mode of smoking is much more toxic than cigarette smoke as carbon monoxide (CO) level is higher in it, the study conducted by a group of pulmonary doctors of the SMS Hospital Medical College and the Asthma Bhawan said in Jaipur.

The study assumes significance in the wake of ongoing debates on the ill effects of smoking and the countrywide ban on lighting up the rolled tobacco at public places, which came into force on Thursday.

Professor of medicine Virendra Singh, who was a part of the study claims that the traditional smoking ways can be fatal.

"Full serve of hookah and chillum cause elevation of exhaled-carbon monoxide by almost 10 folds compared to cigarette and bidi, Singh said in Jaipur.

Singh in a research paper, to be presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Berlin (Germany) on October 4, contradicted the popular belief that crude tobacco present in hookah and chillum made them less toxic and that water in hookah detoxifies the smoke.

"Our study contradicts the 15th century history in which a physician named Hakim Abul Fath invented hookah during the reign of Emperor Akbar in India with a belief that by passing smoke through water the toxic substances get removed and it is not harmful," Singh said.