Sheesha/Shisha Smoking - Harmful Effects on Health

[ZAINULABIDIN KHATRI]

Sheesha or Shihsa is also known as water pipe or Hookah is basically smocking device in which smock cooled and filtered by water.

A recent study shows that sheesha or shisha is serious threat to the health of teenagers, especially the girls. This habit was found to be most prevalent in the 16-25 years age group with 70% sheesha smokers being male and 30% females. There is another dangerous thing about sheesha and that is the use of prohibited and additive substances in more than 30% of sheesha outlets by owners or by smokers. veip

Sheesha smocking may result in low fertility rates among girls and increase the chances of fetal abnormalities, posing a major threat to their health. Other harmful impacts of sheesha smocking includes heart disease, stroke, muscle and joints ailments, headache, and may also lead to cancers of lips, tongue, mouth, lungs and stomach. Besides posing a serious threat to teenager's mental and physical health the sheesha smoke also affected those sitting in the vicinity of the smokers, which is called second-hand or passive smoking.

One puff of the sheesha smoke contains more than 5000 active chemicals out of which at least more than 100 are carcinogenic and more than 25% have serious addictive potential. Another big risk with sheesha smoking is that addictive drugs like cocaine, marijuana and heroine are being added to the flavoured tobacco either by the managements of these outlets or by the customers themselves.

The trend of Sheesha smoking in Pakistan is rapidly increasing with the passage of time and especially in young boys and girls. Sheesha outlets are not only mushrooming in big cities like Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faiselabad but also in small cities and towns. Government should need to check the outlets and should discourage such trends.