Faculty profile: Wasim Maziak

Posted by Sissi Garland × 06/06/2012 at 8:15 am

This is the tenth article in a series highlighting some of the 124 faculty members who were hired during the 2011-2012 academic year

It’s not less expensive nor cleaner nor any less toxic, but somehow waterpipe, or hookah, smoking has been closing the gap on cigarettes as youth’s tobacco of choice. A recent study showed that more than 25 percent of Florida’s 12^th graders have smoked a waterpipe, a rate that has increased at about 5 percent per year. “This is incredibly alarming from a public health perspective. It shows a rapidly accelerating trend,” says Wasim Maziak, chair of epidemiology at FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work.

Maziak joined FIU from the University of Memphis in the summer of 2011. He has been studying the use and risks associated with waterpipe smoking for more than 10 years both in the United States and internationally.

“The College is fortunate to have Dr. Wasim Maziak join our team. He is internationally recognized for his pioneer research work with the waterpipe and the negative health effects of tobacco use. He has a history of grant funding from NIH and other federal and state agencies and is a prolific writer, having authored more than 100 manuscripts in top-ranked journals. In the college, he plays a pivotal role in mentoring faculty and students focused on enhancing their research agendas or projects. We are delighted Dr. Maziak has come to FIU,” says College of Public Health Interim Dean Michele Cicazzo.

Maziak is a medical doctor who focuses on the epidemiology of chronic diseases and on finding evidence-based solutions to behavioral risk factors. He began exploring the patterns of tobacco use and possible interventions in his native Syria by handing out questionnaires and studying patterns of tobacco use and cessation within Syrian society. From there, he expanded his research exponentially, eventually founding the Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies, which serves as the leading institution for tobacco control research and capacity building in the Middle East.

While Maziak has been witnessing the increase in waterpipe smoking among youth in the Middle East for some time, the rapid spread of this tobacco method among youth globally still took him off guard.

More than 25 percent of Florida’s 12th graders have smoked a waterpipe, a rate that has increased at about 5 percent per year.

“This [spread] is so dramatic for a smoking habit that was rarely seen outside the Middle East prior to 2000,” Maziak says. He notes that waterpipe smoking is on the rise everywhere, including the United States, where it is rapidly becoming the second most popular form of smoking among college students. “Even with the trendiness aspect, we are shocked by the spread of waterpipe. It truly is a global epidemic.”

In studying this unfortunate phenomenon, Maziak and fellow researchers discovered that on average, the levels of carbon monoxide to which waterpipe smokers were exposed was higher than what is seen with cigarettes. Given that carbon monoxide is one of the major cardiovascular risk factors, this evidence points to one of the waterpipe’s health hazards.

In addition, Maziak’s research has been among the first to show and study addiction among waterpipe smokers. He points out that abstinent waterpipe smokers investigated in his lab showed heightened craving and withdrawal symptoms overnight that were suppressed by subsequent waterpipe smoking.

His newest study will center on how nicotine dependence develops—and how to prevent that from happening—in young waterpipe smokers. “You cannot use the same cessation programs aimed at cigarette smoking for waterpipe smokers. They are not the same thing,” he points out.

Other faculty members profiled in this series:

Randall Upchurch

Tawia Ansah

David A. Ralston

Margaret Scisney-Matlock