Nana took her turn with the hookah, inhaled, felt the blue glow enter her.

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Despite its Middle Eastern pretensions, American hookah is not quite like the Egyptian kind.

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Mr Askar's company, Hookah Brothers, is now shifting 4, 000-5, 000 units a month to clients in 47 American states.

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So they went to parties or they spent their time on the streets doing nothing, just smoking a hookah.

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The Riche also faced dastardly new competitors, from sports bars and foreign chains to low-rent hookah joints and latterly the internet.

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Some hooksters claim that the water-pipes are healthier than cigarettes: even though hookah also involves puffing on flavoured tobacco, the water acts as a filter.

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Few realise that the hookah itself is stealthily kippering the globe.

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Brennan Appel of SouthSmoke.com, a hookah-merchandise supplier, reckons that there are now several thousand bars and lounges (nobody in the hookah trade is that great on specific numbers).

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None of this deters the hookah crowd.

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Instead, he reached for the hookah.

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