Sorbitol in Hookah Tobacco

This is always a “hot” topic. Hookah Tobacco consists of about 20% tobacco, and the rest is Glycerin (vegetable product), artificial flavors (esters,  etc.), and sweetners (sugars,  invert sugar, and/or sorbitol) which oftentimes are loosely referred to as honey or sweet base molasses. It hardly ever contains natural flavors.

Here I will only discuss “Sorbitol”, which is a sweetner you most commonly find in your toothpaste along with Xylitol. Your body naturally makes sorbitol when breaking down glucose. When you smoke hookah, sorbitol will be completely burnt at around  300 degrees C (coal burning temperature.) This is a very high temperature. The result is formaldehyde and acetaldehyde,  some known carcinogens to humans. These products materialize thru the hydrogenation of CO.  If your eyes become red or itchy while smoking, this maybe the result of 2 additional by-products; acrolein, and furfural.

The hookah Tobacco ingredients look innocent on the surface,  but once you burn them at 300 deg C, the ugly output shows up.

Jordan is one of the world’s top producers of hookah tobacco. This makes it a primary exporter of cancer to humans smoking these productks.  This unfortunately helps indirectly solve part of the global over-population problem.

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Pictured in Amman, JO, at a Hookah Tobacco manufactory

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