I think this summary of the study is much more useful; the press release didn’t bother mentioning the most important finding — that many college students actually report thinking that hookah inhalation is less dangerous than cigarette inhalation. In fact, because the smoke is less irritating, it’s possible to inhale much more deeply from a hookah, making it in many cases more dangerous. (Full disclosure: I went to a hookah bar once or twice in college, enjoyed it, and don’t regret it.)

This is a valuable contribution, but I’m a bit troubled by the social-engineering drive of the researchers. They find hookah “worrisome because hookah smoking engaged many young students in tobacco use who would otherwise have been tobacco free.” In other words, the problem isn’t the misconception of the health effects, it’s the choice that adults are making.

Also, even with some students not comprehending hookah’s health problems, it’s not that big of a deal. Three-quarters of students who’d ever tried hookah hadn’t used it in the last month: “Of the 647 respondents, waterpipe smoking was reported in 40.5%, over the past year in 30.6%, and over the past 30 days in 9.5%.” Some of the remaining quarter had probably done it the first time in the past 30 days, and some of the remaining ones probably use once a week or less. Even those who use regularly in college may tend to stop after graduation (I haven’t seen the stuff since leaving school two years ago, and I don’t think hookah bars are common outside college towns). There’s really not much evidence that college hookah experimentation is setting off too many cancer cases.