Water or shisha pipe smoking: The health effects

Is smoking a water pipe harmful to my health?
by Neda Hormozi, Hammersmith & Fulham Primary Care Trust's Stop Smoking Coordinator

Using a waterpipe (otherwise known asshisha; hookah pipe) to smoke tobacco poses a serious potential health hazard to smokers and others exposed to the smoke emitted. Smoke that comes from a waterpipe contains numerous toxins known to cause diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease and problems during pregnancy [i].

Smoking a waterpipe verses smoking a cigarette.

Smoking any substance, in any form, including:

• manufactured cigarettes
• hand-rolled cigarettes
• pipes and cigars
• herbs
• waterpipes (otherwise known as shisha; hookah) is harmful to your health.

A waterpipe smoking session may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking a cigarette. Typically, waterpipe smoking sessions last 20 – 80 minutes, during which time the smoker may take 50 – 200 puffs. The waterpipe smoker may therefore inhale as much smoke during one session as a cigarette smoker would inhale consuming 100 or more cigarettes [ii]. Chronic respiratory problems including symptoms of bronchitis were reported at a younger age among shisha smokers than among cigarette smokers.

Smoking a water-pipe as a social activity

Water-pipe smoking is often social and two or more people may share the same water-pipe. Additional dangers not associated with cigarettes arise from infectious disease including tuberculosis and hepatitis, with pipe-sharing [iii].

For further information on how to quit smoking tobacco, cigarettes or shisha pipes, please contact your local Stop Smoking Service on 0800 169 0169 or visit http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk/

Advice in Arabic is available from: http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk/downloads/Arabic.pdf

Quotations

“Most people misleadingly believe shisha does not contain tobacco and that when they smoke they inhale herbal products … It is the added flavours that make them feel they are smoking herbs, while they are actually taking in tobacco … Smoking from a shisha pipe is far more dangerous than cigarette smoking because the amount of nicotine can not be measured due to packing differences’ (The Khaleej Times, Arab Emirates, 4th June 2006).

'The risks to people who smoke shisha appear to be as great, if not more pronounced, than from smoking cigarettes' (Respiratory, July 2006) .

Refs
[i] World Health Organisation (2005) Waterpipe Tobacco Smoke: Health Effects, research needs and recommended actions by regulators.

[ii] Knishkowy et al (2005) Waterpipe Smoking: An Emerging Health Risk Behaviour PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 1 July 2005, pp. e113-e119

[iii] Knishkowy et al (2005) Waterpipe Smoking: An Emerging Health Risk Behaviour PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 1 July 2005, pp. e113-e119