A night in turned into a trip to the hospital for one woman in the US, when she discovered the dangers of smoking hookah pipes.

She said: "Four friends end(ed) up in the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning after a few hours of smoking hookah with poor ventilation."

Just an hour of smoking a hookah pipe can involve inhaling 100 times the amount of smoke as in a cigarette, causing a significant increase in the amount of carbon monoxide in the body.

Too much carbon monoxide in your body causes carbon monoxide poisoning.

It's caused by red blood cells -- normally used for moving oxygen around your body -- picking up carbon monoxide instead, starving the body of oxygen.

It can cause tissue damage or even death.

While improving ventilation might have reduced the risk somewhat for the smokers in this case, smoking less or, even better, none of the hookah pipe would have been safer still.

a night in turned into a trip to the hospital.
4 friends end up in the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning after a few hours of smoking hookah with poor ventilation