I don't actually have asthma. No doctor has ever looked at my lungs and noted any inflammation. I've never had what I could surely call an asthma attack. I don't have an inhaler. If I get smoke in my lungs, even from incense, I feel my throat close a little and I cough, but I don't really have asthma.

Sometimes it's just easier to say that I do.

Maybe it's cowardice. Maybe it's a cop-out. But it's so much easier than getting into an argument with my friends over a hookah.

I have four or five friends who would tell you that they don't smoke. What they'd mean is that they don't smoke cigarettes. They smoke a hookah every week or so, but that doesn't count, to their minds. I'm not sure why - they know they're putting tobacco in the pipe, and that there's nicotine and carcinogens in it. Call it the flavor, the feel of the smoke, the social aspect of passing the pipe. Call it the infrequency of the habit. For whatever reason, my friends don't count it as smoking.

I talk to cigarette smokers like that on the phones here at Free & Clear. They'll say "I smoke the milds, so it's not so bad" or "I'm not a real smoker, I only go through one or two cigarettes a day." And I'm prepared to grapple with people on this; I know that mild cigarettes don't contain less nicotine, that a few cigarettes can still cause damage. I help educate, change mind-sets and behaviors.

But I see those same behaviors in those friends of mine who smoke hookah. One friend last weekend got sad that his girlfriend didn't want to smoke hookah; "it's something fun and important for me," he said. "I was hoping it was something we could do together some day." Another got dizzy, and a little jittery; he giggled, "that's what taking three drags in a row does to me."

Anyone else wouldn't care. They'd offer me a cigarette to be friendly, I'd politely decline, and that would be that. My friends are a little more put out. My job provides excellent cover, I can't smoke any sort of tobacco and still work for Free & Clear, but sometimes someone will ask if I'd smoke hookah with them if I ever left my job here. That's when I say that I have asthma.

The truth is, I know how harmful and addictive smoking hookah is. Shisha has as much nicotine from one hour-long smoking session as an entire pack of cigarettes; it's likely to pump far more tar and carbon monoxide into your lungs. No matter where I work, I won't take up the hookah habit, any more than I would take up cigarette smoking.

But why not educate my friends? Why not share with them that their habit is no better, and possibly worse, than someone smoking on average two cigarettes a day? I worry about upsetting them; it's not my job to preach to them, and I'd rather spare myself the friendly harassment and cajoling that would come with honesty. But isn't their health more important than a little discomfort?  Every smoker needs to come to their own quit, at their own time, but that doesn't mean I have to take the easy way out and be silent in the meanwhile. I can help my friends, step by step, just by being a reminder that hookah smoke can and does hurt - it hurts them over time and it hurts someone they care about--me--right now.