Islamabad: Sheesha cafes are flourishing in this Pakistani city as more and more youths, including teenagers, taking to smoking "sheesha" or hookah.  

It is not unusual to find young girls and boys, some of them in their school uniforms, whiling their time at these cafes and puffing into crude tobacco which is dangerous to their health.  

All the posh markets in this city have a sheesha outlet or two, and do not shy from entertaining youngsters below 18 years even though the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance, 2002, bans sale of cigarettes or any other smoking substance to them.  

What is really serious about the phenomenon is that most sheesha smokers believe that it poses only light health risks compared to the serious health related complications of cigarette smoking.  

Experts say sheesha is more harmful than cigarettes even as smokers believe that tobacco used in sheesha is herbal and does not affect health.  

Sheesha is a mixture of crude tobacco fermented with molasses and fruits and the sweet odour of fruits conceals the natural smell of tobacco's tar and nicotine.  

For most teens sheesha smoking is a fad. For Azam, a first year university student, smoking sheesha is a "status symbol". "It helps impress my friends," he said. Azam frequents a sheesha house at least two times a week. Azam's sheesha partner, Moiz, is unaware of the hazards of sheesha smoking. He smokes for its "flavour". 

"The tobacco used for sheesha smoking contains two to four per cent nicotine as opposed to the one to three per cent in cigarettes. A sheesha smoker would inhale as much smoke during one session as the cigarette smoker would inhale when he smokes 100 or more cigarettes," Shazali Manzoor, a pulmonologist at a leading local hospital, said.  

Apart from the usual health scares, a sheesha pipe could be a carrier of other lethal bacteria and it is not uncommon to contract Tuberculosis, flu and meningitis by sharing the same pipe.

Source : PTI