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According to a new study published in the journal Respirology, water pipe smoking, such as smoke inhaled secondarily or otherwise from hookah's or Bongs affects lung and respiratory function just as much as cigarettes.

Researchers nix the common idea that filtered smoking decreases the toxicity of smoke inhaled from water pipes by suggesting that there is an increased prevalence and severity of respiratory symptoms among water pipe smokers and cigarette smokers, alike.

Researchers studies three groups comprised of 57 water pipe smokers, 30 deep inhalation cigarette smokers (S-DI), and 51 normal inhalation cigarette smokers (S-NI) with 44 non-smokers used as the control group.

According to a news release on the study, a questionnaire was administered to assess the prevalence and severity of respiratory symptoms of the subjects and lung function tests were performed on smokers and control subjects using a spirometer.

Results showed that the respiratory status of deep inhalation smokers and water pipe smokers were very similar.

Mohammad Hossein Boskabady, MD, PhD, of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences explains in the news release:

"Our study is the first report regarding the importance of the method of cigarette smoke inhalation with respect to effects on the respiratory system," Boskabady concludes. "Our findings reveal that there were profound effects of water pipe smoking on lung function values, which were similar to the effects observed in deep inhalation cigarette smokers."

Of course, smoking has other more dangerous effects on the human body than just respiratory complications. People who smoke 20 cigarettes a day are extremely susceptible to brain aneurysms, stroke, heart attacks and other cardiovascular deficiencies.