By: Alimatou S Bajinka
In the eyes of many teens, shisha smoking is portrayed as cool, sexy, independent, fun, attractive and living on the edge. As a result, they try smoking and do not understand the effects or dangers attached to it.
A hookah, shisha, or waterpipe is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavoured tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish, and opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin — often glass-based — before inhalation.
Research shows that Smoking shisha is associated with three main detrimental health effects: cardiovascular damage, infection and cancer formation.
Buba Fatty, a shisha user believes that shisha is used as fun and has few health implications compared to cigarettes.
“Shisha is fun and cool, it’s even civilised, it has little health complications compared to cigarettes, it doesn’t make my lips black or make me look rough, it’s just so cool.”
Contrary to Buba’s claims, research has proved that shisha is more detrimental to health than cigarettes. Stating that, in a single water pipe session (Shisha session), users are exposed to up to 9 times the carbon monoxide and 1.7 times the nicotine of a single cigarette.
The amount of smoke inhaled during a typical shisha session is about 90,000 millilitres (ml), compared with 500–600 ml inhaled when smoking a cigarette.
Most youths see smoking as a way of rebelling and showing independence. They think that everyone else is smoking and that they should, too.
In the same vein, Ansu Jabbi said, he does not smoke shisha and starts to misbehave.
“Shisha is not bad, I smoke shisha to calm myself and to escape reality, no one should have a problem with that because it’s my life and I should be in charge, I do not misbehave when I smoke.”
It is said that adolescence is a critical developmental stage when youth are under pressure to fit in socially.
Asha Ngome said she smokes shisha because her friends smoke.
“I do not want to be the odd one or be left out, all my friends smoke so I did as well to fit in.”
According to research, much of the morbidity and mortality associated with shisha smoking can be attributed to impairment of the cardiovascular system.
Globally tobacco use kills more than seven million people annually, a figure expected to rise to 8 million deaths every year by 2030.
