In Monaco, an expert warns about the ravages of shisha, more dangerous than cigarettes?
On the occasion of the Month without tobacco, it is also the cry of alarm that Doctor Mohamed Mouhssine has chosen to push: “The shisha, also known as water pipe or hookah, is a growing fad and is very worrying. It can be more dangerous than the consumption of cigarettes.”
A puff of shisha = a smoked cigarette
Explanations. “It is the same tobacco as that of a cigarette that we are going to burn and to which we will add aromas such as honey which make the smoke softer and sweeter. And the fact that this smoke passes through the water l ‘softens again. “
Shisha is more pleasant to smoke and therefore appeals to non-smokers “who forget that a puff of shisha is the equivalent of a cigarette, warns Doctor Mouhssine. When we know that a shisha meeting lasts between two and three hours and that each smoker draws during this period of time 30 to 40 times on the mouthpiece, that amounts to smoking two packs in two hours of time, it is enormous and very dangerous! “
High risk of passive smoking
The other danger associated with shisha is passive smoking.
“In certain districts of the Paris region, in the basements of certain cities, firefighters are stepping up their interventions for carbon monoxide poisoning. It is a real scourge.”
Finally, the shisha also acts as a vector of contamination by the fact that the tip passes through several smokers during a meeting. “The Covid-19 of course but not only, there is also hepatitis C or tuberculosis which, in Turkey in particular where shisha is widely consumed, is a disease which is making a comeback.”