If any generation knows that, our generation does. We’re the ant-smoking campaign generation. We’re the ones who saw the pictures of the lungs before and after someone spent their lives smoking. We’re the kids who were told not to cave to peer pressure. The ones who sat through D.A.R.E. classes and school assemblies and were told before we ever encountered a cigarette that smoking kills. So we know the dangers, those of us who smoke and those of us who have never smoked. We’re well informed and well aware, and people make their own decisions for their own reasons regardless.

There will never be a world where no one smokes. (Maybe I’ll eat my words someday, but I’d do so gladly.) So why exactly is the campaign to rid the world of smoking still a big issue? Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law banning smoking in public places like parks and beaches. And now, according to Gawker, the government is asking tobacco companies to publish corrective statements on their advertisements and marketing materials, statements that read, “Smoking is very addictive. And it’s not easy to quit…We manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive… When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain—that’s why quitting is so hard.”  This is just one of many, and they do get harsher. And while part of me revels in the fact that tobacco companies are finally being forced to admit to just how harmful their products are, another part of me knows this will make no difference at all.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of smoking, or being around people while they’re smoking. But even I can see that things are getting a bit ridiculous. Everyone knows just how harmful smoking can be, and everyone knows that tobacco companies have always been well aware of just how addictive smoking can be, knows just how much they encouraged that addiction. But that hasn’t stopped smokers from smoking and it hasn’t stopped tobacco smokers from selling. And neither will this.

So while I understand the emphasis on banning smoking, and am thankful that I won’t be hit by a cloud of cigarette smoke while laying on the beach this summer, I also have to ask when is it enough? Where is the line? Smokers are making an informed decision, and while it may not be a healthy one, it’s still there decision to make. People make unhealthy, informed decisions all the time (hello, we’re in college!)  and at some point we just have to step back and let them. And then, maybe we can focus our attention on some of the more relevant and hopefully resolvable issues.

I can recall a specific conversation with a friend who invited me to go to a Hookah bar. “No, thanks,” I replied. “I’m not a huge fan of really smoky environments.” She looked at me like I was nuts and replied, “It’s hookah, it’s, like, more healthy, cause you are smoking it out of water.”

Hm, well I can’t say that I was ever really totally sold on the argument that any type of smoking is considered “healthy,” but now there is new research out that suggests smoking hookah can be just as harmful as cigarette smoking. And, not to sound like an anti-tobacco ad or anything, but we all know the effects of tobacco on a person.

“Using a water pipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking,” the U.N. health agency said in a seven-page document on the practice. “Contrary to ancient lore and popular belief, the smoke that emerges from a water pipe contains numerous toxicants known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other diseases.” USA Today.

Confused about where this whole hookah thing came from? Well it has been used for centuries in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia , but “has become increasingly popular in the United States, Europe and Brazil, particularly among college students and young adults.” That’s us, girls.

I have definitely noticed an increase in it’s popularity and trendiness among my peers and even younger. The one fact that I found particularly interesting from the article was that a person can inhale more than 100 times more smoke in a hookah session than in a single cigarette. That is a lot, to say the least.

Moral of the story: Maybe think twice about having lengthy hookah sessions with friends…It can be just as harmful, if not more, than regular cigarette smoking.