Cairo's popular waterpipes no safer than cigarettes

By Aziz El-Kaissouni

CAIRO (Reuters) - A single session smoking Egypt's popular shisha waterpipes yields a nicotine intake equivalent to more than one pack of cigarettes, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Many Egyptians smoke shisha in the belief that forcing the smoke through the pipes' water container filters out some of the toxins in the nicotine. Not so, according to Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director for the World Health Organization.

"There's been a widespread false belief for decades now that shishas are less harmful and addictive than cigarettes," Gezairy said at a news conference announcing the release of the first report on the hazards of smoking Egypt's ubiquitous waterpipes.

But shisha smoke retained all the carcinogens of cigarette smoke while adding more carbon monoxide and a separate set of carcinogens from the use of burning coals to keep the nicotine flowing, coupled with the risk of infection with tuberculosis or hepatitis from shared mouthpieces, Gezairy said.

"A regular user of waterpipe...smokes 2-3 sessions per day. This translates into intake of nicotine equivalent to more than one pack of cigarettes per session for most waterpipe smokers," the study said.

The Ottomans introduced the shisha to the region in the 17th century, and while the introduction of cigarettes saw the waterpipes relegated mainly to rural areas, they have enjoyed a resurgence among Egyptians in recent decades, the study said.

Women in particular thought of waterpipes as fashionable and less harmful than cigarettes, but the prevalence of smoking in general had increased, as had tobacco-related mortality.

Mostafa Kamal from the Egyptian Smoking Prevention Research Institute said that of Egypt's 34,000 annual tobacco-related deaths, a third were from shisha smoking.

PEER PRESSURE

There is no telling what effect, if any, the WHO report will have on the many Egyptians who get their daily nicotine fix from the bubbling waterpipes in Cairo's many coffee shops, which gladly provide their patrons with shishas of various flavors.

In front of a tiny coffee shop in Cairo's bustling downtown, Ahmed and Mohamed, both 28, sit smoking shishas and drinking tea, the coals perched on top of the waterpipe's stem glowing.

Both admit to worrying about the health effects of smoking, and say they were just discussing quitting.

Ahmed says he wants to quit, but work pressures and a lack of time to let off steam with sports keeps him coming back for his shisha, which he finds therapeutic.

But Mohamed says life is difficult to the point where the health-effects of smoking shisha and cigarettes simply don't mean much to him anymore.

Peer pressure played a part in Mohamed's picking up smoking.