BBC NEWS: Shisha 450 Times Worse than Cigarettes, New Research Reveals. Swine Flu Link Now Established

"High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness”. This is true: see our previous article:

New Study Finds Hookah Carbon Monoxide Most Hazardous Type of All Existing Carbon Monoxides in the World

QUOTATIONS

“Dr Hilary Wareing, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, told the BBC's Asian Network she was shocked by the results of the research.

"Our mouths opened at the level of harm - none of the tests we did showed anything other than shisha is hazardous to health". Paul Hooper, regional manager at the Department of Health, said the findings made the dangers of shisha a "major issue".“

""We found one session of smoking shisha - that's 10 milligrams (of fruit tobacco) for 30 minutes - gave carbon monoxide levels that were at the lowest four and five times higher than having a cigarette," said Dr Wareing."

"But at the worst, shisha was 400 to 450 times more dangerous than having a cigarette," Dr Wareing added."

FIRST Comment by the Observatory on Hookah or Health. Since the above figures were for a 30 minute session only, we infer that a classical one-hour shisha session would be as dangerous for human health as 800 to 900 cigarettes, that is 40 to 45 PACKS OF CIGARETTES ! Dr Wareing was certainly shocked after the 1st half hour and for this reason stopped the measurements there...

- “Shisha smokers in a cafe in Edgware Road, London, said the findings would make them think twice about smoking".

- "You know you can die from cigarettes, but you don't know you can die from shisha," said one.

- "I'm now going home to research it," said another.“

SECOND comment by the Observatory : Excellent initiative ! We recommend the Centre for Tobacco Control Research established by Cancer Research UK, one of the authors of an important report on the hazards of cigarette passive smoking. See evaluation of this study: “Lifting the SmokeScreen"

SWINE FLU

“There's a heightened risk of getting TB [Tuberculosis], herpes and infections like that," she [the Doctor] said. "Now you know swine flu is on the top of the agenda right now - there's no kind of direct correlation, but at time when we're up on our hygiene, it's not the best type of activity to be taking part in." ”

SOURCE: “Shisha 'as harmful as cigarettes'”? By Perminder Khatkar: BBC Asian Network. 23 August 2009

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