" However, the World Health Organisation, rubbishing the fact claims that one-hour shisha session can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes. Health risks of smoking shisha are more than that associated with cigarette smoking because a smoker while smoking cigarettes generally takes between eight to 12 puffs, inhaling 0.5 to 0.6 litres of smoke. "
Having seen this all over the net I thought I would dig a little deeper and actually look at the rates of lung cancer around the world. The reason for this is that if using a Hookah was like 'smoking 100 cigarettes' surely those countries were Hookah's have been used for decades would most likely have higher rates of lung cancer, especially in men as it's a cultural thing.
Guess what... take a look...
http://www.wcrf.org/...lung_cancer.php
There you have it. The lung cancer rates in North America are 8 times higher than in North Africa. It's seems from this that as Americans have historically favoured cigarettes and, I'm assuming, North Africans have smoked lots more Hookah pipes, that the Hookah is less likely to give you lung cancer than a cigarette.
Something else occurred to me in relation to this. I believe lots of fruit is grown in North Africa and as eating fresh fruit is known to help protect you from cancer perhaps this helps to keep lung cancer rates lower.
Looking at a little more info we actually see Central Europe has the highest rates of lung cancer in men, and there's no history of Hookah use there.
http://www.wcrf.org/...tistics.php#MEN
So in my opinion moderate use of a Hookah pipe, and eating fresh fruit (or smoking fruit infused Shisha perhaps!), isn't the next health nightmare that some 'health experts' blog about so much.
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