Tobacco.org

• Hubble Bubble: Points towards toil and trouble 

The social pursuit of smoking shisha has undergone a huge resurgence over the past few decades particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean, South East Asia, and North Africa regions, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Even in the US and Europe, its popularity has soared with many cafes offering shisha (narghile, water pipe, hookah, hubble bubble are just a few of its pseudo names) and in some countries, shisha has defied public smoking (cigarette) bans.

Smoking shisha however may not only be as dangerous as smoking cigarettes (according to the WHO), but has added health hazards due to the heat involved and the charcoal burning (releasing more cancer-causing substances and heavy metals) and sharing of the pipe (infectious agents such as tuberculosis, hepatitis A, Helicobacter pylori, pulmonary aspergillosis, may be spread by sharing the pipe).

Jump to full article »