Laserfiche WebLink
Description of waterpipes and waterpipe smoking <br />Generally, waterpipes have a head, body, water bowl, and hose (see figure). <br />Holes in the bottom of the head allow smoke to pass into the body's central <br />conduit. This conduit is submerged in the water that half-fills the water bowl. <br />The hose is not submerged, exits from the water bowl's top, and ends with a <br />mouthpiece, from which the smoker inhales. The tobacco that is placed into the <br />head is very moist (and often sweetened and flavoured): it does not burn in a <br />self-sustaining manner. Thus, charcoal is placed atop the tobacco-filled head <br />(often separated from the tobacco by perforated aluminium foil) (4, 5). When <br />the head is loaded and the charcoal lit, a smoker inhales through the hose, <br />creating a vacuum above the water, and drawing air through the body and over <br />the tobacco and charcoal. Having passed over the charcoal, the heated air, <br />which now also contains charcoal combustion products, passes through the <br />tobacco, and the mainstream smoke aerosol is produced (6). The smoke passes <br />through the waterpipe body, bubbles through the water in the bowl, and is <br />carried through the hose to the smoker (7). During a smoking session, smokers <br />typically replenish and adjust the charcoal periodically. A pile of lit charcoal <br />may be kept in a nearby firebox for this purpose. As an alternative, smokers <br />may opt for commercially available quick-lighting charcoal briquettes. <br />bowl <br />There are regional and/or cultural differences in some waterpipe design <br />features, such as head or water bowl size, number of mouthpieces, etc., but all <br />75A-10