Narghile (Hubble-Bubble) Smoking, Low Birth Weight, and Other Pregnancy Outcomes

Abstract

Narghile smoking, a common habit among women in many non-Western societies, is assumed by the public to be minimally harmful. This study aims at identifying the effect of smoking narghiles during pregnancy on the weight of the newborn and other pregnancy outcomes. Three groups of pregnant women were interviewed in several hospitals in Lebanon between 1993 and 1995: 106 who smoked narghiles during their pregnancy, 277 who smoked cigarettes, and 512 who did not smoke. The adjusted mean birth weight of babies born to women who smoked one or more narghiles a day during pregnancy and to women who started smoking in the first trimester was more than 100 g less than that of babies born to nonsmokers (p < 0.1). The adjusted odds ratio of having babies with low birth weight (Am J Epidemiol 1998; 148: 375–83.