Hookah Trend Catching Fire In The South Bay

Len Ramirez
ReportingDec 29, 2005 7:24 pm US/Pacific

(CBS 5) When the sun goes down on South First Street in San Jose, the Hookah Nites Cafe lights up.

The ancient Middle-Eastern practice of smoking flavored tobaccos through a tall, ornate pipe is

alive and well in downtown San Jose, thanks to Jordanian brothers David and Paul Zoumut, who started the South Bay's first Hookah lounge two years ago.

"It's popular,” Paul Zoumut says. “It's the trend right now. The smoke is exotic, doesn't smell on you."

Immortalized in literature and rock music, hookah smoking is thought to have started in India 500 years ago.

Today, it's a fad among 18 to 30 year olds who like to share a pipe and the wide assortment of fruity and flowery flavors.

Shayna Poor, 21, doesn't consider herself a smoker, but does enjoy sharing an occasional hookah with friends.

"There's different flavors, you mix it up. Plus, it's a social thing,” Poor says. “It's a fun thing to do. It's not like smoking a cigarette."

The American Lung Association is concerned that young people will get hooked on hookahs.

"I think the most dangerous part about hookah bars is that they make smoking tobacco so much fun,” says Margo Leathers Sidener,

of the American Lung Association. “(It) looks good, tastes good...and that's very dangerous as far as people becoming addicted to tobacco."

David Zoumut says hookah tobacco is milder and does not have as much of the addictive nicotine of cigarettes.

"The nicotine is bleached, goes through a five step process to get the nicotine out, then they mix it with glycerin or molasses and fruit flavors," David says.

But people tend to smoke hookahs at longer sittings, and may inhale more smoke than they would from one cigarette.

Zoumut say it’s part of their culture, perfectly legal, and only for adults who choose to smoke.