By Habeeb Olokooba
Hookah, well-known as Shisha, has been a popular mode of smoking a heated tobacco through a water pipe. This was invented in the 16th century by a physician named Hakim Abul-Fath Gilani. The brain behind the invention of the multi- stemmed instrument was to pass smoke through water in an attempt to ‘purify’ the smoke, a concept which has been left unclear and has been for long a subject of controversy in the medical community.
It is not a new phenomenon, perhaps you have heard people saying: “it is not harmful to the body. Neither is it the same as weed nor cigarettes, as they have different flavors”.
Yes of course, Shisha smoke is very fascinating and appealing, compared to cigarettes or weed, which emit an odor which is quite offensive.
Let’s just assume that it’s a ‘purified smoke’ that is being puffed from the Shisha pot just like the unproved claim of the inventor and that the ones from the normal blunts are unpurified. And finally agree that both claims have been left uncorroborated. Let’s do some in depth analysis.
The tool that is utilized consists of a bowl, a pipe, a hose, and a water pipe with a smoke chamber. When in use, charcoal is burned in the pipe to heat a mixture of tobacco that has been prepared specifically and produce smoke that is filtered through water. It’s interesting to note that the original shisha is an opium or hashish filtering device made from a water pipe cut from a coconut shell and milk.
However toxic substances including heavy metals, carbon monoxide, and carcinogens that are present in the smoke produced by shisha are not effectively removed by the water in a shisha pipe, despite its serving as a filter.
This is exposing people to risk of tobacco predicaments or even more from being brainwashed by the irony of tobacco being different from Shisha. They are the same, with a single difference which is one is illegal and the other is legal. Just the smoke.
Shisha Smoking however, is a very harmful act and can expose you to some ailment which including cancer.
Shisha smokers seem to take in a higher concentration of toxic smoke than cigarette smokers. This is partly because of the mode in which the culture of shisha smoking is practiced such as the frequency of puffing and depth of inhalation compared to cigarette smoking.
Typically, the duration of a shisha session is an hour, during which the user may inhale up to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a cigarette. Even though the water in a shisha pipe acts as a filter, it is still not sufficient in removing high levels of toxic products, such as carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and carcinogens which are present in the smoke that shisha produces.
Cardiovascular Diseases is one of its consequences. Toxins from the shisha smoke make way the bloodstream and contribute to atherosclerosis that in turn hardens and narrows arteries.
The lining of the arteries also gets destroyed from the smoke leading to the accumulation of a fatty deposit (atheroma) which narrows the artery. These transitions can cause many cardiovascular complications such as angina, congestive heart failure, a stroke or a heart attack.
Shisha smoking supplies almost the same amount of nicotine to puffers as cigarettes do therefore nicotine addiction is an unsurprising consequence. The nicotine also stimulates adrenaline production thereby increasing blood pressure, making the heart work harder and maximizing the chance of heart attack or stroke.