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Smoking shisha is 10 times more deadly than cigarettes
A woman inhales shisha at a recent social event. File Photo.
Smoking shisha is a habit that a growing number of people are adopting. But experts warn that it is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. In fact, they say the water pipe is as dangerous as cigarettes.
According to the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa, people who smoke shisha suffer effects of nicotine and high carbon monoxide levels, which are 10 times higher than those who smoke ordinary cigarettes.
According to research carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2007, the volume of smoke inhaled in an hour-long shisha session is estimated to be the equivalent of smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes.
What is shisha?
Shisha, a water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, and then passed through a flamboyant water vessel and inhaled through a tube, is popular in many Arab countries.
Dr Possy Mugyenyi, the manager for the Centre for Tobacco Control (CTCA) in Africa, says many youth have been misled to think that shisha is a mild version of tobacco which has no effects, leading many to consume it in huge amounts. In several popular joints around Kampala, it is common to find people, mostly the youth, hanging around a pot of shisha.
To them, it is a sign of social belonging and symbol of maturity.
More deadly than tobacco
“Shisha is 10 times more deadly than tobacco and is less likely to be smelt or felt because it is scented.
It contains about 50 elements including nicotine, carbon monoxide, and arsenic that are dangerous to the body,” explains Dr Mugyenyi.
“Youth have been made to believe that it is not toxic, and in fact many have abandoned cigarettes in favour of shisha. What they do not know is that shisha kills,”adds Dr Mugyenyi.
Other components of cigarettes include poisonous gases like ammonia and hydrogen cyanide, cancer causing chemicals like benzene and vinyl chloride, and toxic metals like chromium and cadmium.
With a bill yet to be tabled in Parliament on the control and use of tobacco and its products, new findings from CTCA suggest that the number of youth who are taking to the habit of using tobacco-related products is rising.Although tobacco smoking is said to have reduced between 2006 and 2011, by about seven per cent, a significant number of 15 per cent males and three per cent females are still smoking.
Smoking is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and other forms of cancer, and contributes to the severity of pneumonia, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. Further, secondhand smoke may adversely affect health and aggravate illnesses.
Prof Ben Twinomugisha, from Makerere University’s School of Law notes that urgent measures need to be put in place to control and regulate the production, sale and use of tobacco and related products.
He says that legislation should be supplemented by regulations and bye-laws.
