Soaring Numbers of Students Are Smoking Shisha - But It's Not a Safe Alternative to Cigarettes, Warn Experts
MAIL ONLINE: Number of people using the Middle Eastern smoking pipe has more than doubled over past five years / But new research has discovered that the pastime poses as many health risks as cigarettes / Levels of deadly carbon monoxide and carcinogenic benzene found to be double in those who used pipe

Soaring numbers of students are smoking shishas - but experts are warning that the Middle Eastern water pipe is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

A study carried out by University of California San Francisco has found that whilst smoking a shisha exposes you to different chemicals, they are still harmful.

Research chemist Peyton Jacob said: ‘People want to know if it is a lesser health risk if they switch from cigarettes to smoking a water-pipe on a daily basis.

'We found that water-pipe smoking is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking, nor is it likely to be an effective harm-reduction strategy.’

By measuring the levels of toxins in the blood, breath and urine after smoking, scientists found that those who smoked shisha exposed themselves to high levels of carbon monoxide - especially dangerous to those who suffer with heart or lung problems - and benzene, which has strong links to leukaemia.

The amount of bars and cafes offering the exotic pipe have rocketed in in recent years, with the number of people enjoying a smoking session increasing by 210 per cent in just half a decade.

Smoking shisha is common in many Middle Eastern countries and is growing in popularity in the UK and U.S. in particular. » | Rachel Reilly | Monday, April 22, 2013

Shisha Ban in Jeddah Takes Effect Today as Grace Period Ends

ARAB NEWS: The Jeddah mayoralty had set a grace period that ends today for cafes and restaurants in the city to stop serving shisha to costumers.

The ban will affect 238 restaurants and cafes reported to face an 80 percent drop in their revenue. These cafes would make a daily revenue of 7 to 10 thousand riyals from shisha alone.

The ban has only recently been enforced, with Riyadh and other cities having implemented this years ago. Shisha lovers now have to drive to cafes outside the city to smoke as the decision also applies to residential areas.

Abdul Aziz Al-Nahari, spokesman for the Jeddah mayoralty, said this is an application of the ministry of interior’s decision to protect public health and that such measures have been applied internationally.

Arab News met with café owners who denounced the decision as ‘shocking’. » | Ibrahim Naffee | Jeddah | Wednesday, October 10, 2012

How an Hour Spent Smoking Trendy Shisha Pipes Is As Harmful As a Hundred Cigarettes
MAIL ONLINE: Hubbly-bubbly, hookah or shisha - whatever name it goes by, puffing on a Turkish waterpipe is the latest trend to hit British bars and cafes.

The flavoured tobacco, which is smoked via a long pipe connected to a vessel filled with water, is particularly fashionable among young people, with the number of specialist bars rising 210 per cent since 2007.

But the World Health Organisation has warned that a one-hour shisha session can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes.

This is because a cigarette smoker typically takes between eight and 12 puffs, inhaling 0.5 to 0.6 litres of smoke.

But during an hour-long shisha sessions smokers may take up to 200 drags, ranging from 0.15 to 1 litre of smoke each.

‘Shisha smoking is a growing concern because people aren’t aware of the risks like they are with cigarette smoking,’ says Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at University College London.

‘The greater the exposure in terms of duration and amount smoked, the greater the risk to your health’[.]

That’s because although shisha tobacco tastes nicer than cigarettes, it contains all the same toxicants known to cause lung cancer and heart disease. Read on and comment » | Sharmeen Ziauddin | Wednesday, March 14, 2012

THE GUARDIAN: Smoking shisha: how bad is it for you? : It is growing in popularity but some experts say a single shisha session is the same as smoking 200 cigarettes » | Huma Qureshi | Monday, August 22, 2011

Iran Fires Up Voters with Partial Lifting of Water Pipe Ban

THE GUARDIAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government reverses unpopular ban on smoking in tea houses - but only for men

Revoking a smoking ban may seem an unlikely way to boost election turnouts. But in Iran, authorities are hopeful that allowing the traditional hubble-bubble, or water pipes, back into tea houses could encourage reluctant voters to go to the polls.

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has signed into law a bill that removes tea houses from the list of places where smoking tobacco is prohibited, Iranian newspapers reported on Thursday.

The move comes only two weeks after Iran's court of administrative justice, a judicial body independent of the government, banned the smoking of all sorts of tobacco in traditional restaurants and tea houses. Iranians were allowed only to smoke certain types – perceived to be less dangerous – in the past.

Since Ahmadinejad first took the office in 2005, water pipes have intermittently been banned from, then allowed, in tea houses.

In his early years in power, Ahmadinejad came under pressure from conservatives to curb water pipe smoking, which had become a popular pastime for the young people but was seen as culturally decadent by the regime, despite being an integral part of the Persian culture for centuries. A smoking ban was eventually passed in October 2006 but was lifted later to allow certain kinds of tobacco. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, November 17, 2011

Smoking Banned for Women in Gaza
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: A new entry has been added to the list of things women are now forbidden from doing in Gaza. Following on from laws banning women from using male hairdressers or driving cars, it's now illegal for women to smoke the famous shisha water-pipes in public.



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Women Banned from Smoking Hookah Pipes in Gaza
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Women in Gaza have been banned from smoking hookah pipes in public after Hamas ruled it was against tradition and lead[s] to divorce.

A Palestinian woman smokes a waterpipe at a cafe in Gaza City. Photo: The Sunday Telegraph
The sudden edict, the latest in an often arbitrary campaign to improve moral standards in the territory, threatens to bring to an end centuries of tradition.

Without warning, bearded members of Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza, arrived in cafés and restaurants over the weekend to inform proprietors of the ban.

Amid uncertainty about the details of the decision, a large number of institutions stopped serving the scented tobacco altogether, prompting outrage among patrons, many of whom went home in disgust.

Hamas officials subsequently clarified that only women were forbidden from smoking the narghile, the water pipe better known in the West as the hookah or hubble-bubble [hubbly-bubbly].

"The police have decided to ban women from smoking narghile in open, public places because it is against our customs, traditions and social norms," said Ihab al-Hussein, a spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, July 18, 2010

Smoking Ban Threatens Hookahs
Painting by Jean Léon Gerôme* (1824 – 1904), entitled 'The Teaser of the Narghile' ('The Pipelighter') c.1898. Collection Ghassan Shaker Gallery Keops, Geneve, Switzerland. Courtesy of Google Images.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: Hookah bar owners anxious about their survival hope for an exemption such as that for cigar bars

CHAPEL HILL -- A mellow vibe permeates Hookah Bliss these days as college students and other trend-seeking young people socialize over water pipes and burning lumps of pungent, fruit-flavored tobacco in the small lounge on the town's main drag.

That could dissipate, though, when indoor smoking in restaurants and bars is snuffed out across the state at the start of the year.

Hookah bars, which surged in popularity in America's college towns and big cities when tobacco use was in general decline, find themselves battling the smoking bans that are sweeping the country.

In North Carolina, hookah bar owners are joining forces to save their businesses. In the coming weeks, they hope to persuade state lawmakers to make legislative exemptions for them similar to those granted cigar bars and country clubs that will allow smoking after the indoor ban takes effect Jan. 1.

They know of the health risks of secondhand smoke but counter that their patrons choose to come despite the hazards.

The disparity between cigar and hookah bars "just boggles the mind," said Hookah Bliss owner Adam Bliss -- yes, that's his real name.

"Look at who goes to those places -- generally older, affluent white males," he said. "Besides the fact that this law is creating an elitist association between who can smoke and who can't, they're allowing government to put me out of business, and this is supposed to be a free market economy here."

Unlike bars and restaurants, which still attract customers for drinks and food despite the disappearance of ashtrays, the hookah bars could lose the reason for their existence.

The hookah is a centuries-old device of Middle Eastern and African origin through which flavored tobacco is smoked. Tobacco infused with honey, molasses and other flavors is placed in a bowl at the top of the pipe and heated with charcoal. As smokers inhale through a long, flexible stem, the smoke is pulled through gurgling, cooling water. >>> By Anne Blythe, Staff Writer | Monday, June 01, 2009

*Jean-Léon Gerôme was the son of a goldsmith who discouraged him to join the painting studio of a Parisian artist. He worked in France for a while, selling religious cards before moving to Italy. Gerôme was given a commission by the French government in the late 1840’s to paint a mural titled Age of Augustus. In order to acquire source material for this project, he traveled across Europe and Asia Minor and then spent two years working on the detailed painting. Upon its completion, Gerôme spent several months sketching in Egypt. Later in his career, he abandoned the mythological and history paintings for which he was known and began sculpting. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. [Source: World Wide Art Resources]