Pipes: The Smoking “Hobby” of the Seventeenth Century

"Pipe smoking is the most protracted of all forms of tobacco consumption. It may explain why pipe smokers are generally regarded as patient men--and philosophers." -Jerome E. Brooks, from The Mighty Leaf, Tobacco Through the Centuries

It is true; pipe smoking has a different social aura than another form of smoking. For example, in the Western world, tobacco pipe smoking has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety of customized accessories and even clothing. In early films, smoking a pipe indicated not only a patient man; it also signaled that he was an elite intellectual – an “egghead.” No one was better at creating this impression while smoking a pipe than the late actor Gregory Peck. He would puff slowly, light his pipe again, and visibly think.

In those unwary times, pipe smoking was a culture, a hobby, considered a manly art. It was a ritual to fill a pipe, tamp down the tobacco, to light a pipe and to keep it lit, and then to do it all over again. All that fussing around needed constant attention. Men who smoked a pipe were considered “deep thinkers” because they were distracted from their company as they did all these little things. I wonder if they were just doing all these things in order to be distracted from others.

Pipe smoking uses a different type of tobacco; some have scents that remind one of fruit. They are pungent scents that can be recognized from afar. Upper class Victorian homes had smoking rooms; men changed their clothing before smoking because the scent of tobacco clung to their usual clothing. So, prior to lighting up and possibly offending someone, they put on their favorite smoking jackets. They also prominently displayed their expensive pipe tobacco humidors and intricate pipe lighters.

Albert Einstein was a pipe smoker; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the fictional detective Sherlock Homes have all been pictured with pipe in hand, smoke curling over their heads.

However, they all lived before the day when information about what tobacco does to the human body slowly found its way out of the tobacco companies public relations created closet.

Decades ago, doctors began to notice high rates of tongue cancer in pipe smokers. Since then, pipe smoking has been shown to cause cancer of the mouth, lip, tongue, throat, larynx, and lung.

According to government studies, pipe smokers may also increase their risk of contracting other cancers that plague cigarette smokers: cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, colon, and cervix as well as leukemia and diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease, stroke, and coronary heart disease.

A 2004 American Cancer Society study followed 138,307 men -- more than 15,000 of whom smoked pipes -- over a period of 18 years. The study found that pipe smoking was associated with increased mortality caused by lung, oropharynx, esophageal, larynx, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease, when compared to the nonsmokers in the study. The researchers reported, “Pipe smoking confers a risk of tobacco-associated disease similar to cigar smoking.”

Hookah pipes

For hundreds of years, Middle Eastern men have smoked hookah pipes. Now, this form of smoking is becoming popular in the U.S., especially among young people and women. A hookah is a water pipe that holds tobacco. The water is often mixed with honey, molasses, or dried fruit to give flavor to the smoke. When a person inhales on a hose attached to the hookah, the smoke is filtered through water in the base.

Popular myth suggests that hookah smoking is considered to be safer than other forms of smoking because it is passed through water. However, water is not effective for removing all relevant toxins, e.g. the carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons are not water-soluble. In fact, hookah smoke contains levels of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar that are as high as or higher than those found in the smoke from many filtered cigarettes. Several types of cancer, as well as gum disease, have been linked to hookah smoking. Another hazard is contagious diseases which can be passed from one user to another since hookahs are designed for “companion smoking.”

The World Health Organization recently submitted a seven page report outlining the many dangers of hookah smoking. Among others, it claims that a smoker can inhale 100 times more smoke in one hookah session than he or she can smoke in one cigarette. One hundred times more.

One advertisement for hookahs I read this week says the heated water “purifies” the tobacco. Again, water does not purify tobacco nor remove nicotine and other toxic ingredients from tobacco. That, folks, is smoke and mirrors.

The Good News is the popularity of pipe smoking in Western countries has declined in recent years.


However, The Bad News is pipe smoking has also enjoyed a resurgence of late among younger and middle aged smokers who find its contemplative nature and age-transcendent status as "hobby not habit" to be enjoyable and stress-relieving. Due to the wide availability of high quality mass-produced and custom smoking pipes as well as a myriad of pipe tobaccos to suit any taste, the hobby is likely to persist for years to come despite growing anti-smoking sentiment.

And the worse news of all. Hookah pipe smoking is increasing as I type this. Check out the Internet; hookah pipes are a major sales offering. They entice the young and curious with promises of new taste thrills and the exotic image of the Middle East. The only thing they can’t promise is a legitimate claim of safety.