It seems so because there's even more hyperbole being spouted by the tabloids with the following being published today in the Metro:
"A new study in Public Health Reports found that one hookah session means users absorb 25 times the tar and 125 times the amount of smoke in one cigarette."
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/12/smoke-shisha-pipes-bad-news-theyre-far-worse-for-you-than-cigarettes-5618700/#ixzz3x7QcfR77"
Surely that depends on many factors, including, importantly, whether you're using tobacco shisha or not. There are so many ways to enjoy a hookah pipe, some of which involve a range of tobacco free shisha, so none of the nicotine, tar or tobacco that these extreme reports talk about.
However, it gets worse. If we're going to talk 'science', we need to talk it correctly, and this isn't science talk:
"...and hookahs – and estimated the amount of toxic chemicals in each."
Estimated??!
And there's more:
‘It’s not a perfect comparison because people smoke cigarettes and hookahs in very different ways,’ said Primack.
What??!
If you're going to be comparing two different things, you need to compare them in the same way. I'm not going to school anyone on the scientific method, but I can assure you, this isn't it!