It is commonly thought that smoking shisha and hookah can be less harmful than cigarettes, but the truth is that one shisha is equivalent to 50 to 60 cigarettes, and a two hour to three hour session of smoking a shisha is equivalent to smoking 25 cigarettes.
There are several types of shisha that differ in shape and content, but its harmful effects are the same. One type is “mouassal” which is molasses tobacco, another is “jrak” which is tobacco added to a group of rotten fruits and the sweetened shisha which contains tobacco and specials kinds of fruits like apricot. All of these contain fermented material.
Smoking shisha is a leading cause of lip, mouth and throat cancer. It also leads to lung, esophagus, stomach and bladder cancer. Smoking shisha can also be responsible for the spread of tuberculosis microbes that cause tuberculosis and help spread it between smokers who share the same shisha pipe, and it can . This can also spread to non-smokers who come in contact with smokers. Shisha are also a minimal source of air pollution as they spread smoke and toxic gases like carbon monoxide and are contaminated with pesticides, heavy metals and mycotoxins.