Some St. Thomas students use hookah as a social activity, but according to new research, smoking hookah is just as harmful as cigarette smoking, and students don’t seem to realize it.

The Oxford International Journal of Epidemiology said, tobacco smoking using a water pipe, also known as hookah, indirectly heats tobacco, which then filters through water before inhaling and is a health hazard that is on the rise, especially at universities.

St. Thomas sophomore Jenna Ness said she started smoking in college.

“I started because all of my friends from home were smoking, and I never tried it before,” Ness said, “and then one night, a bunch of people from St. Thomas wanted to go to the hookah bar. I always wanted to try it, so I did.”

She said she smokes everyday but doesn’t think it’s harmful for a couple of reasons.

“You share hookah with a lot of people at once, so you’re not smoking as much,” Ness said. “It’s filtered through the water, so it’s not as dangerous as a cigarette.”

The Oxford Journal study said, college students think it’s safer to smoke hookah because it’s filtered through water, but the real issue with the habit is inhalation volume.

Some students smoke hookah for the social aspect.

“It’s a social thing. You just take a hit; it’s not going to mess you up or anything. It’s just cool,” Ness said. “I can always find people to smoke hookah.”

The Center for Disease and Control Prevention website said a typical one hour hookah session involves inhaling 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.

Wellness Center Graduate Assistant Casey Speaker said students are smoking it on campus because it masks the harm.

“The whole getting together getting around a hookah is taking a lot of that scare aspect out of it,” Speaker said. “I suppose that is allowing students to think it’s OK.”

Sophomore Megan Backstrom said she likes smoking hookah because it’s convenient since she lives in Flynn and is able to smoke a few floors down in the open.

“I’m just on the seventh floor, and I can just walk out to the patio or quad and smoke whenever I want,” Backstrom said.

She said businesses make it easy for students to smoke too.

“They have student discounts,” Backstrom said. “They have so many flavors, and they start it for you.”

Flavors such as cappuccino, apple, cherry, chocolate, coconut, licorice, water and mango make smoking hookah fun for Backstrom.

“I had mint chocolate chip once, and it was exactly what it tasted like.” Backstrom said. “It was really good.”

Ness said her favorite flavor is mango and does not see herself quitting in the future.

“If I heard a lot of stories about hookah like people dying like they do on cigarettes, I would probably slow down, but I wouldn’t quit,” Ness said.

Speaker said the openness of hookah smoking in the Quad or anywhere on campus should be something the university should look at.

“I think we need to talk of different avenues of entertainment for students, and this is a steadily growing thing,” she said. “We need to figure it out more, if we want to nip it in the bud.”

Hannah Anderson can be reached at ande5385@stthomas.edu