WHAT IS SHISHA ?

Shisha is an Arabic water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.

The Department of Health and the Centre for Tobacco Control Research (UK) said that shisha smoking can be 400 to 450 times more dangerous than having a cigarette, suffering from high carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by a cigarette. High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness.


But to many people, shisha is not even smoking and in fact some thought that it is a safer than a cigarette, and some even said they do not inhale the shisa smoke. It is not just the level of carbon monoxide that is causing concern, as sharing a shisha pipe could pass around infections, with heightened risk of getting TB, herpes and infections like that.



HAYAT = Article brought to MPS attention by Assoc Prof Dr Mohamed Haniki