Duuuude (said depressingly), college students across the country just let out a collective gasp (with some smoke) as the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement today asserting that water pipes are probably as bad for you as cigarettes.
"Using a water pipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking," the U.N. health agency said in a seven-page document on the practice. "Contrary to ancient lore and popular belief, the smoke that emerges from a water pipe contains numerous toxicants known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other diseases."
What? You mean the smoke doesn't get "filtered" as it makes that bubbly sound coming through the water? That really smart dude at the end of my hall freshman year explained the whole thing. I remember because he kept talking through the best part of Fluffhead.
But all is not lost, because the WHO really only referred to tobacco products and the use of hookahs - not 3-foot glass tubes with witty names. So maybe it is still true.
Also, those scientists did deliver some positive news for those water-pipe smokers out there: The agency said a person can inhale more than 100 times more smoke in a hookah session than in a single cigarette.
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