The return of the water pipe

Fashions always come around full circle.

This time it is the tobacco trend…

* Tobacco originated in the Americas and was introduced to the Ottoman Turks by the Europeans. The Turks over time developed their own method of growing and using tobacco.

* The Ottomans also developed different methods of consuming tobacco such as using a hookah (water pipe) for smoking.

* The fruit-flavored hookah tobaccos that are popular today began in the late 1980s when Egyptian tobacco companies began experimenting with flavored tobacco as a way to sell more of their products to women.

Until more recently I had never seen water pipes smoked in a public place by Turkish women. You can imagine the surprise it was to me when I visited the beautiful country of Lebanon in the 1990s and saw some Lebanese women, who were definitely middle-class, order a water pipe and share it with each other after their lunch. I tried not to stare but they noticed my interest and even invited me to have a puff.

I have three brothers and a sister and only one of us kids is considered a “smoker.” The rest of us never really indulged, even though both of our parents did. I had better things to spend my money on.

The first thing I ever learned about the country of Turkey was that it was famous for carpets, coffee, belly-dancers and tobacco. In fact when I was about 5, my dad proudly informed me that the tobacco for his cigarettes (Camel) came from Turkey. It’s funny, I have never seen any camels here like those on the pack. Camel was my dad’s favorite cigarette. Mom smoked Winston. My oldest brother smoked Marlboro. Of course, my papa didn’t care for cigarettes: he only smoked a pipe or cigar.

Some claim that Marlboro cigarettes burn an estimated 25 percent faster than other top-selling premium brands such as Camel, Winston, Dunhill, and Player’s. I wouldn’t really know…they all burn pretty fast considering the price you pay.

When I read some facts about cigarette smokers I thought to myself, “This sounds like my brother, Thomas Joseph.”

Here are some facts:

* 1963: Cigarette consumption reached a high of 4,345 cigarettes per person per year.

* 2002: Yearly per capita consumption in the United States had dropped to about 1,980.

I don’t think my brother has decreased his intake though. My mom, dad, and papa, despite the doctors’ warnings to them all and consequences, each said they would not give up the one thing they had done all their lives and enjoyed -- smoking.

Turkey has introduced some regulations on “smoking” but they are not as comprehensive as in some countries. Since cigarettes have become so hazardous to our health, the notion now is that the hookah is not as hazardous. Hookah is a new, popular social phenomenon. Again!

LETTERS FROM TOURISTS: Some tourists have written to me asking about water pipes. They write: “How does this pipe work? … Are these pipes used for smoking fruit-flavored tobacco or what? What exactly is in the tobacco?”

DEAR TOURISTS: Let me just explain. Relax! It’s not what you think. This is tobacco, not something else. It’s a glass-based water pipe device for smoking that is operated by water filtration and indirect heat. Hookahs are most often used to smoke flavored tobacco. It takes about 45 minutes to smoke from the hookah and often longer if more tobacco is added to this communal smoking device.

What’s in the tobacco? Basically this tobacco is a 1:3 mixture of shredded tobacco leaf mixed in with a sweetener such as honey, molasses or semi-dried fruit. The tobacco mixture is moist and is combined with powdered charcoal that has various chemicals such as potassium nitrate which allow it to be quickly and easily ignited.

Let’s look at the social implications of the hookah and possibilities of losing weight on a tobacco diet next time.