We’re excited about this bit of news for a couple of reasons. First, we usually don’t get to cite the Brunei Times as our news source. Second, we didn’t know what a shisha was until reading this news story… apparently what we knew as a hookah is more accurately describes as a shisha. Of course, there might have been something lost in translation from the Health Education and Promotion Unit of the Ministry of Health’s report, as first they tell us…
According to research result issued by the Unit, 45 minutes of shisha smoking is equivalent to smoking 50 tobacco cigarettes.
But then…
It was founded [sic] that smoking shisha for 45 minutes means consuming tar equivalent in 20 tobacco cigarettes.
Ummm…which one is it, guys? Maybe there’s some measure other than tar intake that they used to generate the 50 cigarette number. Either way, one would have to have a serious grudge against their lungs to smoke even 20 cigarettes in 45minutes.
More on the ill effects…
Some short term effects of shisha smoking are that after 45 minutes of shisha smoking, the level of carbon monoxide, nicotine, and heartbeat rate will be high. The 45 minutes of shisha smoking will also expose the smoker to twice the level of carbon monoxide and three times the level of nicotine, compared to one tobacco cigarette.
This is because the average time a person smokes shisha is 50 minutes as opposed to one cigarette, where it usually only takes five minutes. Similar to tobacco smoking, a shisha smoker is at risk of addiction as well as being exposed to Cadmium, a chemical element known to cause cancer.
Mmm…cadmium…it’s cadmilicious…
More from the Brunei Times…