Warning over smoking pipe use

Doctors have insisted that the smoking of tobacco from hookah pipes should remain covered by England’s smoking ban.

Campaigners are attempting to have the hookah, a glass-based waterpipe used for smoking herbal fruits in Arabic communities, exempted from the smoking ban for cultural reasons.

But British doctors warn that the health risks associated with hookahs, also known as shisha or narghile, mean it should remain banned in public places and workplaces.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), researchers note that hookah-smoking has become “increasingly popular” among young adults in western Europe.

It is estimated that 100 million people smoke via a hookah daily around the world.

Doctors warn however: “We believe that including the hookah in the legislation is appropriate since the exposure of non-smokers to tobacco fumes is considerably higher than for cigarette smoking because of the large plume of smoke that the hookah generates.

“It remains to be seen what effect this legislation will have on smoking non-tobacco containing products that still generate a large amount of smoke.”

The clinicians also cite research showing that families are more likely to allow their children to smoke using a hookah.

“Children as young as ten years old are known to smoke fruit flavoured aromatic tobacco in areas with large minority ethnic communities such as Leicester and London,” they write.