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.