Places like Blo and Café Havana are gaining popularity by the minute in Bowling Green because of the fact that hookah is gaining popularity.

Hookah is a type of tobacco that is burned and smoked through a hose, said Faith Yingling, director of Wellness.

There are many different flavors of hookah including apple, chocolate, mango and sex on the beach.

“If you have flavors like that, people are enticed by that,” Yingling said.

While hookah may be more social than cigarettes, it is by no means safer.

“The problem is people think it’s less harmful, but it has many of the same health risks as cigarette smoking,” Yingling said.

The charcoal that is used to burn hookah is not safe for the user either.

“The charcoal used to heat the tobacco can raise the health risks because that has high levels of carbon monoxide, metals and the cancer-causing chemicals,” Yingling said. “The tobacco in hookahs is burned because it is exposed to high heat and the smoke is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke.”

Some of the health risks include lung, bladder and oral cancers as well as heart disease, she said.

Even though there are some health risks, “it’s gaining popularity,” she said.

One of the popular hookah bars in Bowling Green is Blo, which opened in September.

“Weekends are very busy,” said Hookah Manager Tyler Callahan. “We are the only other hookah café in the town, and we are closer to students so I think that is the reason they choose to come here.”

Blo is also the only hookah bar in Bowling Green that has indoor smoking, Callahan said.

“We want to be a lounge where people can do homework, drink, smoke and eat food,” Callahan said.

Hookah, while popular with college students, is also gaining popularity with high school students.

“In 2010 … a survey found that among high school students, one in five boys and one in six girls had tried hookah. That’s pretty significant,” Yingling said.

Junior Emma Boylan is one of the six girls the study found to have tried hookah in high school.

“I got into hookah because when I was younger I wanted to go out but I was too young to drink and didn’t want just stand around at a bar and not participate,” she said.

For Boylan, hookah bars were “the next best thing” to spend time with friends and feel like an adult.

If students smoke hookah for an hour at the bars though, they will typically do 200 puffs, which is 10 times more than a cigarette, Yingling said.

“The amount of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 mL compared to 500-600 mL inhaled when smoking a cigarette,” Yingling said.

For people who are not smoking the hookah but are with their friends, there are still many health risks as well.

“It contains smoke from the tobacco as well as the heat source,” Yingling said.

The reason that hookah may be popular is because of how people see it.

“I think when you have these things it’s marketing, it’s these businesses popping up and people are like ‘oh, that’s cool,’ you know it’s trendy,” Yingling said.

Junior Amanda Myers tried hookah as a junior in high school.

“My friends said it was fun and cheap so I thought, ‘Why not?’ I felt cool and rebellious doing it,” Myers said.

Yingling said students need to be aware of what they are actually ingesting in their body when they do hookah.

“Just because [companies] glamorize [hookah] with flavors doesn’t mean you aren’t being exposed to nicotine. It just masks it,” she said.