Category Archives: Social Effects of Shisha

Major Diseases Caused by Shisha Smoking

lung cancerRecently, I read on a topic about diseases from smoking and as it goes, smoking shisha involves numerous major health risks. This is a known fact. We cannot ignore the effects of smoking from a shisha pipe.

Did you know that in the United States alone, nearly one in five deaths, or an estimated 440,000 deaths per year, can be attributed to smoking. Approximately, half of all Americans who continue to smoke die due to smoking-related complications. And smoking comes from various ways among which is smoking hookah.

According to the medical experts, a recent study states that a hookah pipe may act as a medium for transferring dangerous bacterium causing infectious diseases such as Hepatitis A. This places people who smoke shisha at a higher risk than just smoking regular cigarettes especially when the shisha pipe is used by multiple smokers.

Here are lists of major diseases caused by smoking shisha:


Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is true that smoking can cause cancers such as lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer. Ninety-percent of lung cancer-cases are due to smoking.

If no one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis – only 0.5 % of people who have never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer.

“In a recent study, 88% of those people with cancer in India were at one-time shisha smokers.  The risk for lung cancer is significantly increased with shisha.  A study in paediatrics concluded that shisha is at least the same, if not worse for one’s health, cancer-wise, than cigarettes.  Professor Thomas Eissenberg of Virginia of Commonwealth University concluded through his studies on shisha that “every risk of cigarette smoking is also associated with water pipes.”

If one smokes, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth; the most common are underneath the tongue and on the lips.


Emphysema is a progressive disease of the airways that is characterized by a gradual loss of lung function. This serious lung disease causes damage that cannot be cured or reversed although there are treatments that can lead to some improvement in lung function. The symptoms of emphysema are tightness of breath, weight loss, fatigue, difficulty of breathing and morning headache.

As a matter of fact, an American popular talk show host Johnny Carson died because of emphysema in January 2005.

Dr. Michael Busk, a pulmonologist at Indiana University School of Medicine says that if Johnny Carson saw him he would have to advice him to stop smoking and gave him some medicines, and he might still be alive today.

Each year, over 120,000 Americans die because of emphysema according to the American Lung Association. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth largest cause of mortality in the U.S.

Chronic Bronchitis

Chronic bronchitis is indicated as coughing with a lot of mucus that continues for at least three months. Smoking is the most common cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is responsible for 80% of cases. It is estimated that 90% out of twenty smokers have some emphysema when the lungs are examined after death, whereas more than 90% of non-smokers have little or none.

Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is a serious threat to smokers notably for shisha smokers.  The carbon monoxide intake is dangerously high when smoking shisha because of the high effects of exposure to second-hand smoke.

Therefore, let us stay away from smoking shisha.  The risks outweigh the little that can be benefited from it.  Let us make a choice to stay away from smoking shisha for the sake of our health and the people around.

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The Dangers of Smoking Shisha


Here are some of the dangers when you smoke shisha:

Contagious Diseases


Lung Cancer


Nicotine Addiction


Heart Disease


Oral Dangers



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Factors Why People Smoke Shisha

A while back, I saw this news regarding a kid who smokes and he is only two years old. No one should even smoke at such a young age. The kid’s father taught him how to smoke and he is not even aware how serious it is to when it comes to the health of the kid.

Believe it or not smoking is a part of any culture. There are millions of smokers throughout the world, who are not even aware of the harmful effects of smoking to their own body or even to others. I always asked myself, “Why do people smoke?” Whatever the type of smokes one prefers, one should be very aware of the implications of their choice.

Shisha smoking is growing popularity around the world but experts say that every single of shisha session are equivalent to 200 sticks of cigarettes. Despite the serious effects of shisha smoking to one’s health, many are fine with it. Some even say that they can’t live without taking a puff of smoke. Smoking is an addictive drug in more ways than one.

Here are some reasons why people smoke shisha:

Young people want to look mature; they want to be in the circle of friends or even as an experiment. Since young people watch older people smoke everywhere, they think it is good and even cool. Seeing family members smoke nudges these easily-influenced younger generations.

Most people smoke for reasons such as stress and pressure because of work or problem. They may be unemployed or unsatisfied with their work. And still others might be dealing with difficult relationships and smoking gets the pressure off their system, without accounting the health implications of their actions.

There are people who smoke shisha because they want to control their weight. Some people want to lose weight and they think that a way of losing weight is through smoking. People who smoke loses appetite as it lessen the taste and smell when it comes to food.

Smokers feel relaxed and think that smoking gives them energy at stressful times in life.

But despite these reasons we cannot deny the fact that smoking shisha is a dangerous gamble to your health.  It has been scientifically proven that smoking leads to different kinds of diseases such as lung cancer, halitosis, tuberculosis and many others. Shisha smoking has accounted for numerous deaths throughout history.

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An insight into how does shisha affect health

You may have seen this contraption in various specialty bars in Britain; people huddling around a water-pipe that has a compartment which burns tobacco in a particular flavour. When you suck the pipe the smoke travels through water held in a glass compartment, producing a bubbling sound as you go on smoking. The idea is to filter the smoke as it passes through water. In reality, the smoke does not lose a single bit of its lethal carbon monoxide, carcinogens and nicotine content and reaches straight to your lungs. The lethal mix is so dangerous that a single instance of smoking the shisha, as it is commonly known as, can give you the same effect as smoking 30-100 cigarettes.

The tobacco is placed in a container on top of the compartment carrying water. Since glycerine is predominantly used to sweeten the tobacco, it creates problems in burning. As such, charcoal is added to the tobacco to assist in the burning process. The cause of the deadly carbon monoxide is the charcoal which is sucked through the water and then straight into your lungs.

The impact of culture on shisha smoking

Shisha has been making a lot of bubbles these days as both teenagers and young people in their early twenties seem to be picking up a fancy for this stuff. Even professional club footballers are resorting to shisha for fun. While the teenagers are too adamant to understand the potential dangers of shisha the onus falls on the parents and immediate peer group to resist a potentially costly mistake.

A lot of teenagers from the west Asian communities tend to smoke shisha due to cultural influences. Shisha, also known as nargile in Turkey and Syria and hookah in India, is a cultural phenomenon. People often smoke it as a part of festivities. However, for those who are smoking it just for the kick, they are exposed to the lethal effects which it can and often delivers.

How does shisha affect health when the smoke is purified through water?

A lot of misconception seems to be flying around about shisha and the extent of damage it can cause. First thing is that water does not purify the content of the smoke. In fact if it does anything at all then it is to simply cool off the smoke to a degree. This actually causes more damage. You tend to inhale it deeper and the smoke spreads inside you faster. In fact a lot of people have experienced a slight to medium dizziness coming out of a shisha café acute. The symptoms are similar to carbon monoxide poisoning. How shisha affect health can be answered in a simple way. Try smelling the car exhaust for a couple of seconds and you will realise how dangerous the effects are. Shisha bar patrons leaving the premises have been tested randomly to check the level of carbon monoxide in their bodies. Compared to the statistics of a person who have smoked only cigarettes the person who have smoked shisha have been found to have up to three times the amount of carbon monoxide. Some shisha smokers have reported that it makes them feel high. This is a classic symptom of high level of carbon monoxide in the body.

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