How many cigarettes are in a shisha bowl?

How many cigarettes are equivalent to one shisha bowl? Comparison between shisha and cigarettes

In the media discourse it is often claimed that a shisha bowl is equivalent to around 100 cigarettes. Let's delve deeper into this topic. An average shisha bowl contains 15g of shisha tobacco, of which around 15% is raw material. This means that this amount contains all the nicotine tar as well as other toxic components. A standard cigarette contains 0.7g of tobacco, which at 15% of 15g is about 2g. The rest consists of glycerin and flavors that do not contain nicotine or other harmful substances released during vaping. In summary, a shisha bowl of tobacco contains about 2 g of raw material, which corresponds to about 2 1/2 cigarettes.

Use of shisha tobacco and cigarettes

While in a cigarette the tobacco is burned and smoke is produced, shisha tobacco is merely vaporized and only slightly burned. Burning a cigarette produces around 150 toxic substances. When shisha tobacco burns, it is often referred to as "burned out" in the shisha smoking culture, as the aim is not to burn, but rather to produce steam. In physics, the principle of conservation of energy applies, according to which substances do not appear out of nowhere or simply disappear, but can only be transferred. So how does the claim of 100 cigarettes come about?

Studies often use smoke volume as a comparison, which I believe is inaccurate. With cigarettes, we actually have smoke volume because it is smoke. Shisha, on the other hand, is liquid and therefore vapor. The moist state of shisha tobacco is no coincidence!

Is it claimed that 2g of processed shisha tobacco contains as many contaminants – if not more – as 100 cigarettes? Where does this nicotine come from, and how can 2 g contain more harmful substances than 70 g of cigarette tobacco? Theoretically speaking, a sauna would be more dangerous than a burning house. In the sauna it is steam, while in the burning house it is smoke!

Let's continue! When the hookah is finished, it still contains at least 40% wet tobacco that is not completely burned.

Let's think further: Could the toxins be contained in other ingredients, such as glycerin and flavors? These ingredients are also found in e-cigarettes, which have been promoted as an alternative to traditional cigarettes. There are obvious contradictions here, and we took a closer look at the study.

The study carried out an analysis of the smoke gases, in which the tobacco, coal and everything else were completely burned to examine the resulting substances. However, this approach is not practical because a traditional cigarette involves complete combustion, which is not the case with a hookah, which is primarily vaped.

What is your opinion on this?