Women Smoking Cigarette increases by 10 per cent in Pakistan

The number of young female smokers in the country has jumped to 16 per cent from six per cent in recent years.This was stated by Dr. Javaid A. Khan, a senior chest physician and researcher in his presentation during the 12th Biennial Convention of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) Tobacco is responsible for 100,000 deaths annually in Pakistan. The number of female smokers in their teens and twenties has increased rapidly. These women smokers are also going to face the same health issues due to tobacco usage as those being suffered by male smokers. Pakistanis in general consume Rs. 450 billion worth of tobacco annually and this trend needs to be curbed, said Dr. Khan, a consultant chest physician, currently associated with the Aga Khan University Hospital. In his key-note address on Tobacco Control Key to Disease Prevention, he said, The usage of tobacco in the form of Shisha or Hookah is gaining popularity among youngsters in urban areas of the country. However, it must be noted that smoking Shisha for an hour is equal to smoking 100 cigarettes in the same time. Since Shisha also contains nicotine and tar, it can lead to lung cancer and heart attacks. Its unfortunate that many people consider Shisha a non-hazardous leisurely activity.

The chest physician referred to a WHO study that showed that parents who had 15 per cent acceptability for smoking cigarettes reflected over 70 per cent acceptability for Shisha smoking. Dr. Khan deplored that in countries like Pakistan a single cigarette pack was cheaper than a loaf of bread and consequently smoking was getting popular among youth due to its easy availability and affordability. Appropriate and efficient measures to prohibit smoking and tobacco chewing will not only prevent deaths but also curtail heavy expenditure incurred on diseases caused due to consumption of tobacco and its bi-products, he said. He further added that Tarceva, a medicine used for the treatment of lung cancer, costs patients more that US$ 4000 per month, and is unaffordable for majority of Pakistani. Meanwhile, a PIMA press release issued here on Monday stated that the two day 12thBiennial Convention of the Association concluded on Sunday evening at Hyderabad. The event was attended by renowned consultants, including Pediatricians, Cardiologists, Nutritionists, Oncologists, Gynecologists, Hematologists and other medical professionals. A large number of postgraduate students and pharmacists from all over Sindh also attended the moot.

Smoking increases among Pakistani women

By: APP, Uploaded: 28th March 2011

The number of college and university going women smokers in the country has jumped to 16 percent from six percent in the recent years, said Prof. Javaid A. Khan, a senior chest physician and researcher in his presentation during 12th Biennial Convention of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA). He said women smokers too, are bearing the same health consequences of tobacco usage as the male smokers, Pakistanis in general consume Rs. 450 billion worth of tobacco annually including 120 billion rupees on smoking cigarettes daily, added the Consultant Chest Physician, currently associated with Aga Khan University Hospital. In his key-note address on Tobacco Control Key to Disease Prevention, he said millions of rupees are also spent on pan chewing, besides niswar and hookah by the masses each year. According to a PIMA press release issued here on Monday the two day 12th Biennial Convention of the Association, concluded on Sunday evening at Hyderabad, was attended by renowned consultants, including Pediatricians, Cardiologists, Nutritionists, Oncologists, Gynecologists, Hematologists and other medical professionals. A large number of postgraduate students and pharmacists from all parts of Sindh also attended the moot.

Dr. Javaid A. Khan in his keynote address said tobacco usage in the form of Shisha or Hooka, gaining steady popularity among youth in urban areas of the country, was 100 times more harmful than cigarettes. Smoking Shisha for an hour is equal to smoking 100 cigarettes in the same time, he said. The chest physician, a strong proponent of anti-smoking campaign said shisha also contains nicotine and tar that result in lung cancer and heart attacks. Unfortunately many people consider Shisha as a non-hazardous leisurely activity, he said. The chest physician referred to a WHO study that showed parents who had only 15 percent acceptability for smoking reflected over 70 percent acceptability for the Shisha smoking. It is an alarming trend and there was an immediate need to create awareness regarding diseases caused due to smoking, in one or the other form, he said. Dr. Khan deplored that in countries like Pakistan; a single cigarette was cheaper than a loaf of bread and consequently was getting popular among youth due to its availability and affordability. He said that tobacco was responsible for 100,000 deaths annually in Pakistan. Appropriate and efficient measures to prohibit smoking and tobacco chewing will not only prevent deaths but also curtail heavy expenditure incurred on diseases caused due to consumption of tobacco and its biproducts, he said.

The Chest physician said although cigarettes and tobacco were very cheaply available in Pakistan, medicine especially Tarceva, needed for treatment of lung cancer, cost patients more that US$ 4000 per month, and is unaffordable for majority of countrymen. A hookah (hukk, Huki, also known as a waterpipe, narghile, arghila, qalyn, or shisha) is a single or multistemmed instrument for vaporizing and smokingflavored tobacco called shisha in which the vapor or smoke is passed through a water basin often glass-based before inhalation.[1][2][3] Depending on the placement of the coal above the shisha, a hookah can be used to produce smoke by burning the shisha or used to create water vapor by melting it at a lower temperature.[4] The origin of the waterpipe is from the time of the Safavid dynasty in the Persian[5][6][7][8] empire which extended into India[5][9][10][11] to where it also spread during that time. The hookah or Argyleh soon reached Egypt and the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan) during the Ottoman dynasty where it became very popular and where the mechanism was later perfected. The word hookah is a derivative of "huqqa", which is what the Arabs called it.[12][13] Smoking the hookah has gained popularity outside of its native region, and is gaining popularity in North America,[14] South America, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Tanzania and South Africa, largely due to immigrants from the Levant (where it is

especially popular) introducing it to the youth.

South Asia[edit] India[edit]

The intricate work on a Malabar Hookah

The concept of hookah is thought to have originated In India,[39] once the province of the wealthy, it was tremendously popular especially during Mughal rule. The hookah has since become less popular; however, it is once again garnering the attention of the masses, and cafs and restaurants that offer it as a consumable are popular. The use of hookahs from ancient times in India was not only a custom, but a matter of prestige. Rich and landed classes would smoke hookahs. Tobacco is smoked in hookahs in many villages as per traditional customs. Smoking tobacco-molasses is now becoming popular amongst the youth in India. There are several chain clubs, bars and coffee shops in India offering a wider variety of muassels, including non-tobacco versions. Hookah was recently banned in Bangalore. However, it can be bought or rented for personal usage or organized parties.[40] Koyilandy, a small fishing town on the west coast of India, once made and exported hookahs extensively. These are known as Malabar Hookhas or Koyilandy Hookahs. Today these intricate hookahs are difficult to find outside of Koyilandy and are becoming difficult even to find in Koyilandy itself. As hookah makes resurgence in India, there have been numerous raids and bans recently on hookah smoking, especially in Gujarat.[41]

Pakistan[edit]
Although it has been traditionally prevalent in rural areas for generations,[42] smoking hookahs has become very popular in the cosmopolitan cities of Pakistan. One can see many cafs in Pakistan offering hookah smoking to its guests. Even lots of households have hookahs for smoking or decoration purposes. In Punjab, Pakhtunkhwa, and in northern Balochistan, the topmost part on which coals are placed is called chillum. In big cities like Karachi and Lahore, cafes and restaurants offers Hookah and charged on per hours.

Shisha is 100 times worse than cigarettes by Rob Corder on Wednesday, 30 May 2007 Hookah pipes do not make tobacco smoking safer, says the World Health Organisation.Smoking tobacco using the traditional hookah waterpipe has been part of the fabric of life in the Middle East for centuries. Its documented evolution stretches back to 16th century India where one historian recorded that the waterpipe was invented by a physician during the reign of Emperor Akbar as a less harmful method of tobacco use. The physician, Hakim Abul Fath, suggested that "tobacco smoke should be first passed through a small receptacle of water so that it would be rendered harmless." So began a myth that shisha smoking is far less dangerous to health than cigarette and pipe smoking. This week, the World Health Organisation has quashed that myth, suggesting that smoking a hookah is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. It also said that more research is needed into the link between the use of the waterpipe and several fatal illnesses.

An advisory note from the WHO says that smoking a hookah may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking cigarettes. Because smoking a hookah may take up to 80 minutes, the report suggests that the smoker is subjecting himself to as much smoke as somebody dragging on 100 cigarettes. And the water does not strip out all toxic substances. Some of the nicotine is absorbed, but this leads to people smoking for longer in order to experience the effects of the drug, and therefore inhaling more smoke containing carbon monoxide, heavy metals and other toxic compounds, which leads to heart and respirator

Fatwa declares shisha haram for Muslims Visits 276 Visits 276 Visits 276 Visits 276 4 By Sarvat N. Hanif August 05, 2013

. The National Council for Islamic Affairs in Malaysia issued the Fatwa (edicts) earlie declaring shisha haram and prohibiting Muslims from providing shisha-smoking ser activity associated with it.

The popular pastime of smoking shisha or water-pipe smoking has finally been dec (forbidden) for Muslims Justifying the Fatwa, the committee chairman Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shuko explained that the committee found that all scientific findings by way of comprehe the country and internationally had proved that shisha had a most detrimental effe widespread use, particularly among youths and women, was most worrying.

"After listening to experts from the Health Ministry and scrutinising medical and sc evidence from the country and abroad on the ill-effects of shisha, the committee d prohibit shisha for Muslims," he said in a statement. "Shisha is clearly harmful to he wasteful activity that is categorised as a bad or despicable thing that all Muslims sh

Shisha smoking, also called hookah, narghilem water pipe, or hubble bubble smoki smoking tobacco, sometimes mixed with fruit or molasses sugar, through a bowl an tube. The tube ends in a mouthpiece from which the smoker inhales the smoke fro substances being burnt into their lungs.

Popular flavouring includes apple, plum, coconut, mango, mint, strawberry and col or charcoal is burned in the shisha pipe to heat the tobacco and create the smoke b

fruit syrup or sugar makes the tobacco damp.

The way shisha is prepared poses health danger. At the very top of a hookah, the b shisha is covered by an aluminium foil, upon which burning charcoal is placed to ro tobacco. Toxic fumes are produced by the reaction between the burning charcoal a foil. The hookah's glass base, which acts as a chamber for the shisha smoke, is also water. This water mixes with the toxic gases and increases the smoke's humidity, w the carcinogenic fumes to stay in the lungs longer.

Doctors and health campaigners have since long warned that the aromatic smell of serious health risk. The tobacco in one shisha is "equal to the poison of two and a h cigarettes." A lung specialist said, that though young people especially were convin fruit-flavoured shisha tobacco was less harmful than cigarettes, in fact it "contains nicotine than a cigarette".

The increasing trend of water pipe smoking can be attributed to several misconcep include the popular beliefs that the nicotine content in water pipes is lower as com cigarettes and that the water used in this form of tobacco intake filters out all the h chemicals such as carbon monoxide, nicotine and tar. These common misconceptio public to believe that water pipe smoking is not a significant health hazard.

Anything that contains tobacco increases the chance for cancer cells to develop. Pe shisha is harmless, whereas they at least know cigarettes are bad for them. So shish have a higher risk of developing lung cancer because of the 'no-tobacco-content' m he said.

The Fatwa has left many shisha lovers bewildered and sometimes angry. They rejec comparison with cigarettes and argue that smoking a shisha over several hours is le more cultivated than having a quick cigarette.

As shisha smoking is a largely social activity, a nozzle used to inhale and exhale the smoke is usually shared between many people. The nozzle can play host to huge am microbacteria and viral hepatitis such as tuberculosis and even Hepatitis A, which i shisha smokers risk of contracting diseases.

As shisha sessions are considered a leisurely activity, smokers also tend to take dee a longer period of time, which can cause a higher risk of developing oral and lung c prolonged absorption of toxins.

Shisha smoking is traditionally used by the people from Middle East or Asian comm becoming increasing popular UK and America. The flavoured tobacco is smoked by worldwide for its sweet smell and smooth taste. A study by the American Lung Ass showed a worldwide increase in shisha use in recent years, mostly among youths a students.

The amount of bars and cafes offering the exotic pipe have rocketed in recent year number of people enjoying a smoking session increasing by 210 per cent in just hal a very popular thing to attend a parlour and enjoy a pipe with friends while catchin latest news and gossip.

The sweet smell of the smoke is very appealing to a lot of people and this is a big fa in popularity. This kind of smoking is regarded as non addictive to be enjoyed as a s and a very good alternative to cigarettes and cigars. People who partake in this act is very relaxing and helps them get rid of the stresses of the day.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a 60-minute shisha session pro 100 to 200 times more smoke than a regular cigarette, which translates into a heav toxic fumes for both the smoker and the people around them. The estimated findin show that, on average, a smoker will inhale half a litre of smoke per cigarette, whil smoker can take in anything from just under a sixth of a litre to a litre of smoke per

Shisha smoking is not just limited to the male population. As in other parts of the w Pakistan also women and young girls are smoking shisha is the cool thing to be don modern women. Many colleges and school going girls smoke shisha daily. Accordin conducted by Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) in 71 educational instituti were of shisha smokers were females against 29.8% males.

For these young girls, shisha smoking is new style of spending their pastime or to re enjoyments are only for the mean time. In the long run, this circle of friends would their own lives. They will eventually meet someone special and decided to marry a own families. Then here comes the time where they encounter some of the proble

Women who smoke shisha during pregnancy have babies with an increased risk for diseases. Shisha smoking can increase womens risk of blood clots. Shisha smoking the unborn babys development. The smoke from Shisha decreases the oxygen con mothers body which ultimately results to the shortness of breath to the fetus whic the baby towards death.

Prevention is better than cure, so that for those people who are tempted to try to you still have a chance to consider the above results. You have always the choice to difference. For those people who are smoking Shisha for some time now, it is not t the wheel of your life. You have the option whether to smoke to you and your love destruction. Or make that choice to have a clean living and have a health.