Health experts from around the world, meeting in Abu Dhabi this Thursday (19), warned that smoking hookah, the water pipe quite common in the Arab world, could be more harmful than cigarettes.
According to the Tobacco Atlas, launched this Thursday during the World Conference on Tobacco or Health, “a simple puff of a hookah is almost equal to the volume of smoke inhaled with a cigarette”.
Para Edouard Tursan Espaignet, um funcionário da Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS), “uma sessão de ‘shisha’ — outro nome para o cachimbo de água — pode ser equivalente a fumar de 20 a 30 cigarros […] Isto pode ser muito perigoso”.
Hookah, which until recently was smoked by older men, has become a major concern for the anti-smoking movement as it is becoming increasingly popular on college campuses — which means a younger audience.
The number of fans has grown in recent years in the United States and Europe.
“Young people between the ages of 18 and 24, educated and urban” are increasingly smoking hookah, Gemma Vestal, who works for the “Initiative for a Tobacco-Free World”, an arm of the WHO, told AFP.
According to Ghazi Zaatari of the Faculty of Medicine at the American University of Beirut, the aromatic flavors added to tobacco offer young smokers a “milder” alternative to the taste of traditional tobacco.
International tobacco companies are investing more in the hookah niche, according to experts.
Gemma Vestal warns against the large amount of carbon monoxide in hookah.
“Its adverse effects include an impact on the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, oral activity and teeth,” the WHO study said.
However, the organization regrets the lack of measures taken by countries to curb the use of hookahs, compared to those adopted against cigarettes.
Vistal notes, for example, that hookah smoking is not affected by laws that prevent indoor smoking.
