18 reasons why you should stay away from Shisha

In taking a drive or a walk in any up market upmarket shopping mall or going to an up market area or visit clubs in any city in Africa, you most likely to find people smoking Shisha.

There are health warnings to why you shouldn’t smoke it. And here are reasons

1. The volume of smoke inhaled in an hour-long shisha session is equivalent to smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes.

2. On average, a cigarette smoker  inhales half a litre of smoke per cigarette, while a shisha smoker can take in anything from just under a sixth of a litre to a litre of smoke per inhalation.

3. It can cause cancer of the lungs, tongue, pancreas, trachea, bronchus, intestine, kidney, colon, rectum, mouth, lips, throat, and also increases the risk of heart disease

4. Smoking shisha, like smoking cigarettes, causes low sperm count, with men who smoke ending up having weak or no erections.

5. It also leads to impotence at a young age, infertility in women and contributes to premature ageing.

6. Hookah smokers actually inhale more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do because of the large volume of smoke they inhale in one smoking session, which can last as long as an hour.

7. An hour-long hookah smoking session involves some 200 puffs, while smoking an average cigarette involves 20 puffs.

8. The amount of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 millilitres, compared with 500–600 millilitres inhaled when smoking a cigarette.

9. Unlike cigarettes, hookah smoke also contains by products of charcoal or wood cinder combustion, which can increase heart disease-causing agents. Hookah smoke contains high levels of toxic compounds including tar, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens). In fact, hookah smokers are exposed to more heart disease-causing carbon monoxide and smoke than are cigarette smokers.

10. High levels of benzene, a chemical in crude oil and gasoline, were found in hookah smokers and non-smokers in a US survey of people who attend social events where the water pipes are used. Benzene exposure is a known risk factor for leukaemia. There are no safe levels of benzene exposure.

11. As with cigarette smoking, hookah smoking increases the  risk of getting many cancers including those of the lungs, mouth, throat, bladder and oesophagus.

12. Hookah smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking, leading to tobacco dependence. Shisha users are likely to graduate to using cigarettes and other drugs.

13. Hookah smoke poses dangers associated with second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke from hookahs can be a health risk for non-smokers. It contains smoke from the tobacco as well as smoke from the heat source (for example charcoal) used in the hookah.

14. Sharing the hookah’s waterpipe can increase the risks of contracting communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis.

15. Babies born to women who smoke water pipes every day while pregnant weigh less at birth than babies born to non-smokers.

16. Babies born to hookah smokers are also at increased risk of respiratory diseases.

17. Shisha smokers are just as much at risk of reduced lung function and respiratory diseases as cigarette smokers.

18. Shisha smokers are at risk of decreased fertility.