VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City authorities said that Shisha smoking is many times more harmful than tobacco and it is the cause of serious diseases while the supply of Shisha is expanding.

The city government has proposed to the Ministry of Health to add Shisha to the list of goods and services banned from business in order to protect people's health.

According to research carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), the volume of smoke inhaled in an hour-long shisha session is estimated to be the equivalent of smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes.

On average, a smoker will inhale half a liter of smoke per cigarette, while a shisha smoker can take in anything from just under a sixth of a liter to a liter of smoke per inhale.

Each turn of Shisha smoking often lasts for more than 40 minutes, including 50-200 inhalations, each time from 0.15 to 0.5 liters of smoke. According to the WHO and the American Cancer Society, smoking Shisha in one hour, a person may inhale smoke of as many as 100-200 times and 70 percent of nicotine than smoking a cigarette.

A 2005 study also showed that smoking shisha enhances the risk for oral diseases and lung cancer by five times.

Shisha is a glass-bottomed water pipe in which fruit-flavored tobacco is covered with foil and roasted with charcoal. The tobacco smoke passes through a water chamber and is inhaled deeply and slowly.

Smoking Shisha is now very popular in many countries, including Vietnam.

Recently, a number of bars and coffee shops in HCM City and Hanoi have expanded their shisha smoking to serve the youth, while Shisha is not on the list of goods banned in Vietnam.

Le Ha