Puffing on sheesha is actually worse than smoking a cigarette, a doctor at Hamad Medical Corp. has said.

“Shisha is not an alternative to cigarette because of the high concentration of three most common chemicals in tobacco – tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide.

So for every shisha smoked, the smoker inhales some 802mg of tar as against 22.3mg in cigarette; 2.96mg nicotine (1.74mg in cigarette) and 145mg of carbon monoxide (17.3mg for cigarette),” (Preventive Medicine senior consultant Dr Ahmed al-Mulla)
said.

Despite the health risks associated with both smoking cigarettes and sheesha, some 37 percent, or 600,000 people, in Qatar are smokers, he added.

Other fun facts:

• Around 200 million cigarettes are smoked per day here

• Up to half of the fire outbreaks in Qatar are linked to smoking

• In the 11 to 13-year-old age group, 10.7 percent of boys and 2.8 percent of girls smoke cigarettes and some 15 percent of both boys and girls smoke shisha

Yikes!

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Omar Chatriwala