While public health efforts have successfully decreased cigarette use in the U.S., alternative tobacco products remain popular with adolescents and young adults. Dr. Tracey Barnett, an assistant professor in the department of behavioral science and community health at University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, leads a team investigating hookah use in young adults with the support of a National Cancer Institute grant. Alternative tobacco products are attractive to adolescents, and many young adults may never have started tobacco use if alternative products were not available. To date, much of the hookah literature has examined negative attitudes and comparisons with cigarette smoking, but no known studies have investigated hookah smokers’ reasons for use.