Inhaling smoke is bad for you… yes that includes non-tobacco shisha
We all know that smoking increases the risk of cancer, but it seems there is a blind spot with other ways of inhaling smoke like shisha. Remember its not just the tobacco that is the problem, wherever there is smoke, there are other harmful chemicals too.
People associate smoking with lung cancer but it is also linked to a number of other cancers (including mouth, throat, oesophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, liver, pancreas, voice-box (larynx).
Even smoking a few cigarettes a day or smoking occasionally increases the risk of lung cancer; the more cigarettes you have ever smoked the more the risk goes up.
So, the best time to quit smoking including shisha etc is now - quitting smoking now will lower your risk of lung cancer at a future date.
A 2016 analysis of several studies suggested that during 1 session on a shisha pipe a person can take in up to:
- the same amount of tar as if they had smoked 25 cigarettes
- the same amount of carbon monoxide as if they had smoked 11 cigarettes
- the same amount of nicotine as if they had smoked 2 cigarettes
Stopping ALL types of smoking lowers your cancer risk.