Hookah Sessions Equivalent to Smoking 30 Cigarettes, Health Experts Warn

Health experts on Thursday expressed concern about the growing popularity of the water pipe across the world, warning that it is more harmful than cigarettes.

The use of water pipe, also known as hookah or shisha, was restricted to middle-aged men in the Middle East and Central Asia. Its users are now young adults across the world. A hookah session lasts an average of one hour, which is equivalent to smoking more than two dozen cigarettes, Daily Mail quoted health experts speaking at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi.

The water pipe works by drawing smoke, created by heating tobacco with lit charcoal, through water. Health experts maintain that smoking a water pipe not only exposes to risks of smoking tobacco, but also carries the added risk of inhaling toxic substances created by burning coal.

"Water pipe has an interesting design because it somewhat engages your five senses. You're holding the hose, there's something you're looking at, there is the aroma, there is the sound of the bubbling and there is this kind of sensational thing with the social gathering," said Ghazi Zaatari, Chairman of pathology and laboratory medicine at the American University of Beirut, adding that the offer of flavors is tempting to youngsters.

WHO has warned that smoking hookah carries risk of lung, oral, gastric, esophageal and bladder cancer besides risk of cardiovascular disease.

Regulation of water pipes, now minimal, is expected to become stringent with countries beginning to display warnings about tobacco smoking which include the water pipe.