SHISHA (HOOKAH) - ITS DEADLIER THAN TOBACCO

NO   TOBACCO   DAY -
SHISHA MYTH SHATTERED - ITS DEADLIER THAN THE CIGARETTE.
DurgeshNandan Jha   New Delhi:

    When the parents of Anika Sarkar (name changed) decided to organise a party to celebrate her 16th birthday , she made a special request. The teenager asked them to arrange for flavoured hookahs. Initially reluctant, her parents later relented.
 
    Actually , smoking a hookah, or shisha as it is popularly referred to, is not as harmless as Anika's parents thought it was. The United States' Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the amount of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is around 90,000 ml. Compare that with the 500­600 ml inhaled when smoking a cigarette and it puts the risk of oral and lung cancer in the frightful perspective.


     This danger is not often apparent to many . Sudhir Kumar, whose daughter was invited to Anika's party , said, “I was witness to the youngsters' craving for shisha. It was insane since many of those children were smoking in front of their parents.“ There is no data in India on the number of hookah users, but a visit to restaurants in metros, including in Delhi, shows it is increasingly popular.
Citing the example of two youths aged 19 and 22 years, who were diagnosed with TB in May , Dr Vivek Nangia, director, Fortis Lung Centre, pointed out that hookah consumption could be a major source of transmission of infections.“For six months, the two young men had been consuming hook ah in which users share the same mouthpiece,“ he said, adding that he could determine no other risk factors for TB in his conversations with the youngsters and their parents.

    A US survey found that in 2014, about 23% of 12th grade students had used hookahs in the past year. The usage was higher among boys (25%) than girls (21%). “In our country , hookah bars that are proliferating,“ rued Dr Ajay Sharma, oncologist at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute. “It should be banned immediately .“ In a shisha, the tobacco is placed in the device's head but since it is moist and does not burn in a self-sustaining fashion, charcoal is placed over it and lit. These days flavours of apple, mint, cheery , even chocolate and coffee are added to mask the acrid taste of tobacco. The popular perception is that the water in the bowl absorbs the toxins from the tobacco smoke, rendering it safe.

    However, as Dr Nangia elaborated, “Cigarette users typically smoke a cigarette for 5-7 minutes, taking 8-12 puffs of 4075 ml each. A hookah session lasts 30-80 minutes and a user inhales almost a litre of smoke, equivalent to the smoke of 100 or more cigarettes. This smoke contains high levels of toxic compounds, including tar, carbon monoxide and cancer-causing chemicals.“






 
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