Health ministry alarmed by rise in Shisha use

By Violet Nabatanzi

WOMEN and youths have shifted from Tobacco use to smoking Shisha. 

According to a recent study done by the ministry of health and other partners, 62 percent of the entertainment places in Kampala, Mukono, Wakiso and Entebbe were serving Shisha to women and young people on a daily basis.

The health experts expressed concern that "Shisha smoking does not only affect people who smoke it but the second hand smoke also affects  people who hang around these places,"

Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi, the principle medical officer mental Health and Control of Substance Abuse at the ministry of health, noted that Shisha is very dangerous because it is mixed with marijuana and alcohol to make it potent.

Shisha smoking sometimes called hookah, water pipe, or hubble bubble smoking is a way of smoking tobacco, sometimes mixed with fruit or sugar molasses, through a bowl and tube.

Ndyanabangi said "Shisha smoke can be more risky than a puff of a cigarette, leaving cigarette to Shisha smoking is like jumping from a flying pan into the fire. A person who smokes Shisha is likely to suffer from lung cancer and heart diseases among others,"

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) a single session of smoking shisha yields a nicotine intake equivalent to more than one pack of cigarettes.  This means that a shisha user can expect the same risk that cigarette smokers are facing.

Benjamin Sensasi, the WHO health promotion advisor, called upon parliament to debate and pass the current Tobacco Control Bill into law in order to save the thousands of lives in the country.

"Tobacco control and particularly illicit trade, requires a multi- sectoral response. Government agencies, policy makers' religious leaders, United Nations agencies and security organs must all be brought on board to fight illicit tobacco trade," he said.

Dr. Possy Mugyenyi the manager center for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) said in the last fifteen years, consumption of Tobacco amongst adults has reduced from 15 percent to 7 percent, and in youths it stands at 17.3 percent.

"When we see consumption of Tobacco among the youth going up, we get worried because in the next fifteen years we are going to see many cancer patients in Mulago," he warned.