Smoking a shisha pipe is as bad for people as smoking tobacco, the Department of Health and the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre has found, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported yesterday.
The research revealed that people who smoke shisha, or herbal tobacco, can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels.
It found one session of smoking shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by one cigarette. High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness.
Shisha is a water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.
The Department of Health said it is difficult to know exactly how much carbon monoxide one cigarette produced, due to the differences in smokers' inhalations.
But measuring carbon monoxide in exhaled breath showed a normal non-smoker's level to be three parts CO per million parts of air (ppm) (less than 1 per cent of blood not working properly), a light smoker to have 10 to 20 ppm (2 to 4 per cent of blood not working properly), and a heavy smoker 30 to 40 ppm (5 to 7 percent).
The study found shisha smokers had 40 to 70 ppm of CO in their breath - affecting 8 to 12 per cent of their blood.
Dr Hilary Wareing, director of the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre, told the BBC's Asian Network she was shocked by the results of the research.
"Our mouths opened at the level of harm - none of the tests we did showed anything other than shisha is hazardous to health."
Paul Hooper, regional manager at the Department of Health, said the findings made the dangers of shisha a "major issue".
He said many people regard shisha "as not even smoking"
