Walking down Haight Street at night, the sweet smells of apple or honey, and the sound of Middle-Eastern music eminate from a busy room filled with people enjoying Middle-Eastern cuisine. Café Kan Zaman offers San Franciscans a taste of Middle-Eastern culture, not only through food but also hookah.

Hookah, a traditional Middle Eastern or Asian water pipe used for smoking tobacco, is a new hit among young San Franciscans. This popularity stems from travelers returning from Europe, where some coffee shops also offers hookah pipes and from people visiting the Middle-East, where they often experiment with exotic cultural items. San Francisco is a city rich in cultural diversity.

A hookah is a water pipe made out of either glass or clay, equipped with a water reservoir and a hose for inhaling tobacco smoke. On the top of the shaft is a place for coal or an electric plate that rests on a mesh bowl containing the tobacco. When the user inhales through the hose’s nozzle, pressure differences cause air to rush into the hookah and light the tobacco. The smoke then enters the body of the hookah, runs down the pipe and into the water reservoir, which filters and cools the smoke. The tobacco, often fruit-flavored, then rushes down the tube and into the smoker’s mouth. This emits a wonderful smell as one exhales which fills the room.

Senior Jennifer Hourani at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, who is of Lebanese heritage, said she doesn’t feel that hookah is harmful or a negative thing. “I’ve tried it, but I don’t feel that it’s a bad thing, ” Hourani said. “It’s kind of like drinking alcohol with your family — it’s cool and we do it in moderation.” She smokes with family at home here in the United States and when she is in Lebanon, but just at family gatherings or when “laying back” with cousins or friends.

Laura Fong There's been a love affair with eastern culture, especially in San Francisco" Neha Gandhy Cafe Kan Zaman customer

Many young people who smoke hookah believe that cigarettes are worse. “I feel cigarettes are more addicting,” Class of ‘05 Clara Villalobos Andino said. “I don’t feel hookah is that bad because when you hit it, it’s filtered through the water.”

Senior Zachary Flood, who tried hookah smoking recently at Café Kan Zaman, a restaurant on Haight Street, said he feels the same way. “It’s a much easier hit than cigarettes,” Flood said. Hookah feels “better because the flavor hides the tobacco. I feel that there is an apple orchard on fire in my throat, but doused in water.”

Young people enjoy smoking hookah, and say that it adds culture to the community. “It’s a great social thing,” said Gabriel Posiner, a 20-year old San Franciscan who also smokes hookah at Café Kan Zaman. “Smoking has always been a communal thing, and there’s so few places to smoke inside.” Posiner’s friend, Neha Gandhy agreed. “It brings people together,” Gandhy said. “There’s been a love affair with eastern culture, especially in San Francisco.”

The atmosphere of the restaurant itself lures people in to enjoy what it has to offer. At the café, people are immediately attracted to the bar area, where customers smoke hookah or place orders for it. The interior design creates a carefree and relaxed atmosphere. The ceiling is covered with a canopy of rug. Beneath it lies a low long table, and a bench with padded seating on one side and pillows as seats on the other. Round tables promote a sense of community. And often in the center o f a table full of diners sits a water pipe and a hose being passed from one person to the next as they participate in conversations.

The bartender, who declined to give her name, said that hookah is just something to do.

“We serve hookah and food,” the bartender said. “In doing this, we serve customers culture.”

But Alyonik Hrushow, the Tobacco Free Project Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said that it is illegal to smoke in enclosed places. “It is definitely harmful to (your) health,” Hrushow said. “The state law only regulates smoking tobacco in bars. The local ordinance states that it is illegal to smoke tobacco in restaurants.” These regulations make it illegal to smoke in enclosed places, like Café Kan Zaman. However, no tobacco or nicotine has been found in the hookah substances used in the hookah pipes, according to Hrushow. “There was a complaint filed (about them). We went in and got a sample of their tobacco. It was then tested by the U.S. Customs office. They found no tobacco or nicotine.” She then later stated that “there is definitely a loophole.”

The social aspects of smoking also have a dark side. Smoking rates among 18-to-24 year-olds are the highest of any age group in California, according to the California Department of Health Services in 2003. And, hookah is a more harmful substance than cigarettes, according to the August 2005 newsletter from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program located in Oakland. In addition to 4,800 chemical compounds, 69 carcinogens and nicotine found in tobacco, a study from the research program showed that hookah also contains higher quantities of toxic heavy metals like arsenic, nickel, cobalt, chromium, lead and cadmium. Another study conducted by Shihadeh and Saleh, found that hookah smoke produced twice the amount of “tar” from a single 45-60 minutes smoking session than from a single cigarette. One hookah session is the equivalent of chain-smoking 15 cigarettes, according to the study.

With this information, some feel that even hookah is harmful to smoke.Flood, after smoking cigarettes and hookah for a while, said he feels that it is unnecessary. “Tobacco is whacko!” Flood said. “It’s cool and interesting and cool to do with friends, but it’s basically useless. I don’t understand why it’s so (popular among young people).”

Another senior, Christina Oatfield, said that she finds tobacco—especially cigarettes— revolting when people smoke, in public places. “It’s bad for you and the environment,” Oatfield said. “I hate it when I see people smoking out on the streets or just smoking in public. People know it’s bad and they do it anyway. It’s proven that second-hand smoke is unhealthy, so people smoking is not only endangering themselves but others as well.”

Former Lowell student Dan Conway, who left to receive his GED, said that regardless of the kind of tobacco, it is still a death sentence. “It’s disgusting,” Conway said. “People smoke just because it’s cool. They don’t realize that they’re killing themselves. People are just stupid.”

Junior Yael Wartens, who went to Israel over the summer, said that hookah is less popular among young Israelis than it is for Americans under 18. “It’s a bigger thing for tourists; I didn’t see as many natives smoke hookah as I did see them buying and bargaining for it,” Wartens said of hookah in Israel. “Hookah, as with other things, is less of a fad if it’s legal and accessible to teens. The fad (in the United States) is based on being rebellious and going against the grain.”

Hourani said she feels the same way. Because she frequented Lebanon often as a child and her family has a hookah, “I’ve been raised to be indifferent about it because it’s not that big of a deal when you’re exposed to it so often.”

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