Key Points:
– Water pipe smoking raised levels of nicotine, cotinine, tobacco-related carcinogens, and volatile organic compounds, including benzene and acrolein, in young adult users.
– After a single session of water pipe smoking, study volunteers had a 73-fold increase in nicotine, a fourfold increase in cotinine, twofold increase in NNAL, and a 14% to 91% increase in the breakdown products of volatile organic compounds.
– Given the significant intake of nicotine and carcinogens, chronic water pipe use could put users at an increased risk for cancer and other chronic diseases.
Lung cancer is now the second leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. An estimated 491,200 women died of lung cancer in 2012, more than half (57%) of whom resided in economically developing countries. Differences in smoking patterns account for much of the variation in lung cancer rates around the globe.
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