Towards a Topographical Model of Narghile Water-pipe Café Smoking: a Pilot Study in a High Socioeconomic Status Neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon

A pilot study of narghile water-pipe smokers in a cafe in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, was conducted to develop a preliminary model of narghile water-pipe smoking behavior for use in laboratory smoking machine studies. The model is based on data gathered from smoking sessions of 30 min or longer duration from 52 smoker volunteers using a differential pressure puff topography instrument, as well as anonymous visual observations of 56 smokers in the same cafe. Results showed that the "average" water-pipe cafe smoking session consists of one hundred seventy-one 530-ml puffs of 2.6-s duration at a frequency of 2.8 puffs/min. The implications of this comparatively high-intensity puffing regimen on the production of toxic smoke constituents are discussed.