Ottawa Public Health is raising concerns about the increasing popularity of water pipes – more commonly known as hookahs – with the city’s board of health.
The growing use of hookahs, especially among youth, was highlighted along with concerns about e-cigarettes and second hand smoke at a recent board meeting.
The report, “Let’s clear the air: a renewed strategy for smoke-free Ottawa,” aims to expand the smoke-free regulations to prohibit the use of water pipes in all public places. Currently, it is only legal sell herbal shisha products that do not contain tobacco.
Shisha – which is a tobacco or herbal product mixed with molasses that is smoked in a hookah – comes in a variety of flavours such as apple, grape and peach. The mixture is placed at the top of a hookah in a bowl with a piece of charcoal above it. The smoke is drawn down through the instrument and cooled in a shallow amount of water at the base.
Several Centretown shisha bars have become popular with hookah enthusiasts in their early 20s. The air quality in these establishments is a health hazard, according to a recent study by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit.
Krista Oswald, project officer with Ottawa Public Health, says new studies show that even though herbal shisha contains no tobacco, the smoke and second-hand smoke is just as dangerous as cigarettes.
“Herbal water pipe smoke contains the same amount . . . or an excess (level of toxins) of those found in cigarette smoke. They contain the same toxic trace metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons . . . which are released into the air,” she says.
“One hour of water pipe use is comparable to (smoking) 10 cigarettes,” Oswald says.
Men and women between the ages of 20 and 24 have the highest rate of water pipe use. Thirty per cent of men and 29 per cent of women have tried a water pipe at one point in their life, according to a study presented to the health board.
“That’s particular of concern because they are in there inhaling a lot of the second hand smoke (and) sharing the pipe in some cases. Which is dangerous as well because you can get other types of infectious diseases,” says Oswald.
She attributes the growing popularity of hookah use to the social atmosphere and exotic nature of trying something new.
Farzad Raeisifard, a 20-year-old Carleton University student, who has been smoking shisha regularly for the last five years, says he picked up the habit because of his friend group.
“The past two months have been three or four bowls a day, but I’ve been trying to cut it down to one,” he says.
Not everyone agrees that shisha has negative health effects.
VIP Shisha, located at 157 Preston St. caters mostly to a university crowd. Azad Jahantd, assistant manager, says that smoking herbal shisha has no side effects because it does not contain tobacco.
“When you eat an apple it tastes like apple. (Shisha) is exactly the same thing. There is only a little bit of smoke. It’s not like a drug, it’s not like weed, it’s not like a cigarette . . . there is no tobacco, it’s a lot different. It’s herbal,” says Jahantd.