Smoking is a cooking process that lends flavor and a preservative effect to foods. It can be used on meats, cheeses and fish. Frequently smoked foods include deli-style meats such as ham and pastrami.
Cigarettes are manufactured from cured and finely cut tobacco leaves, often combined with additives, and are rolled into a paper-wrapped cylinder. They contain nicotine, a psychotropic substance with stimulant and tranquilizing properties.
Cigarettes
Cigarettes are cylindrical rolls of shredded or ground tobacco wrapped in paper or another material, and usually have a filter at one end to trap toxic chemicals in the smoke. They are the most popular and commonly smoked form of tobacco in the world.
The smoke from cigarettes contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including many that are harmful to health. These chemicals include nicotine, which is addictive, and carbon monoxide, which can poison the body. They also contain carcinogens and cardiovascular toxicants smoking products. They may also cause loss of cilia in the lungs, which can lead to emphysema. And they can cause permanent discoloration of the teeth and bad breath, called halitosis.
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance that rapidly enters the bloodstream and stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone epinephrine, which increases heart rate and breathing. It also stimulates the brain’s reward circuits. People who smoke cigarettes experience cravings and find it difficult to quit.
Pipes
Pipes are available in a variety of materials that influence flavor, durability and cost. Glass pipes offer a wide range of styles and designs that are often considered to be works of art. They are generally much more durable than other types of pipes because they go through a lengthy heating and molding process to achieve their unique shapes.
They come in many colors and can even change color as the pipe is smoked. Glass pipes are usually made of borosilicate glass, which is strong and heat resistant.
If you are a new smoker, start out with a mild blend of tobacco and smoke it at a low temperature. Too hot and you could burn a hole in the bowl. Some people also experience a sore tongue when smoking a pipe, but this can be avoided by using less packed tobacco and taking a slower draw. Keeping a glass of water handy may prevent this as well.
Hookahs
A hookah is a water pipe that allows for multiple people to smoke from it. The hookah has a bowl and a body with grommets in between to help seal the parts, a perforated foil cover, and coals that heat the tobacco and produce smoke. Hookahs can be used for smoking flavored tobacco (mu’assel), cannabis, and bango (an intoxicating plant leaf).
Short-term hookah use disrupts autonomic nervous system regulation on the cardiac cycle, resulting in a decrease in HR variability and thereby increases the risk of coronary artery disease development [181]. Additionally, hookah exposure increases platelet activation, which leads to an increased susceptibility for thrombotic cardiovascular events.
Several harmful chemicals are inhaled from hookahs including aldehydes (such as acrolein), which induce cardiopulmonary toxicity, carbon monoxide, which limits the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed by red blood cells, and nicotine, which is addictive. Establishments that sell hookahs should sanitize and properly store all equipment before each use, and should have portable fire extinguishers in the areas where lighted coals are prepared and stored.
Other Tobacco Products
With the restrictions on cigarettes, tobacco companies have developed new products with strong youth appeal. These include flavored little cigars and cigarillos, smokeless tobacco (snuff, chew, or dissolvables), and e-cigarettes with flavors that appeal to youth.
These products are not safe alternatives to cigarette smoking. They are addictive and can cause harm to health.
Examples of smokeless tobacco include snuff, which is sniffed or inhaled through the nose, and moist snuff, which is placed between the gums and cheek. Other types of smokeless tobacco are shisha or narghile, which are smoked in water pipes, and dokha, a mixture of ground tobacco with bark, roots, and leaves, smoked in Persian midwakhs and Japanese kiseru pipes.
Local governments can regulate these products by imposing taxes or restrictions on marketing and promotions. Point of sale (POS) health warnings and media campaigns that address these emerging products may be effective in reducing their appeal to youth, as well as informing people of the dangers of using them.