State's latest tobacco challenge is the hookah

Congratulations, California: We've made serious inroads in fighting the tobacco scourge that for decades has killed and sickened millions. Too bad there's another health threat coming up fast in the rearview mirror.

It's called hookah, and as with other tobacco fads of the past, its purveyors have successfully conveyed an aura of harmlessness that masks very real health consequences.

Between 2005 and 2008, according to researchers at UC San Diego, the number of California adults who've used a hookah at some point in their lives jumped by more than 40 percent, to 11.2 percent for men and 2.8 percent for women. They're especially popular with high school and college-age smokers.

Hookahs, centuries-old devices, are in their present incarnation glass pipes used to smoke water-cooled, frequently flavored tobacco. One recent study showed that 59.5 percent of high school students believe a hookah is more socially acceptable than cigarettes, and 46.3 percent believe it is safer. It's not: Hookah smokers are susceptible to the same risks as cigarette smokers. Throw in the possibility of herpes from shared pipes, and it's clear this is a practice worth discussing with the kids.