One good characteristic of the youth , is
their ability to explore and experience new adventures whether good or bad .
The youth of Ghana seems to be always interested in discovering and subscribing
to various forms of substance abuse and now the new kid on the blog is Hookah
popular known in Ghana as Shisha .
Hookah mostly known to have originated from
Egypt and other parts of the Middle East countries is the new trend adopted by
people all over the world ,mostly found in middle Eastern specialty cafes and
restaurants. Ghana seems to have its fair share of this bad trend as majority
of the youth have resorted to enjoying this new adventure which gradually
diminishes the quality of life .
A hookah, shisha, or waterpipe is a single-
or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either
tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish and opium. The smoke
is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation.
Shisha smoke is toxic. It contains tobacco,
and people who use it breathe in cancer-causing chemicals and addictive nicotine.
Smoking shisha could at least double your risk of lung cancer. It may also
increase the risk of some other cancer types, like mouth and stomach cancers.
Long term effects from research suggests that
people engaged in smoking shisha ends up with impaired pulmonary function ,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , esophageal cancer and gastric cancer .
Short term hookah use from this same
research is associated with acute health effects such as increased heart rate
and blood pressure, reduced pulmonary
function and carbon monoxide intoxication .
shisha worse for you than smoking?
Many people think that drawing tobacco
smoke through water makes shisha less harmful than cigarettes, but that's not
true. In a shisha session (which usually lasts 20-80 minutes), a shisha smoker
can inhale the same amount of smoke as a cigarette smoker consuming over 100
cigarettes.
It can be detected in your urine for at
least 3 days after your exposure to nicotine and in your hair for weeks or
more. The best way to remove nicotine from your body is to avoid tobacco
products altogether.
Shisha tobacco is usually a combination of
tobacco prepared in molasses and flavoured with fruit flavours. Shisha smoke
contains large amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar and other toxins.
Furthermore, shisha is not a drug, but a
form of tobacco smoking. It contains nicotine, but in lower concentrations than
cigarettes. Shisha smoking is a social activity that brings people together and
it is as harmful as smoking cigarette. Even though some argue that , shisha
helps people to relax, because it contains tobacco so the nicotine content will
help them feel relaxed and as well as putting their minds at ease . The upside
of using shisha to relax as opposed to smoking a regular cigarette is that, fewer chemicals and toxins means your health
would not detoriate quickly.
Shisha is banned in African countries
namely Cameroon, Kenya, Gambia ,Tanzania and Rwanda but not much regulation is
available in Ghana .
Ghana's Public Health Act prohibits smoking
in “enclosed or indoor area of workplace , any other Public place except in a
designated area “ . The Ghana Health Service (GHS ) is concerned about the
gross acceptance and widespread of smoking shisha in the country which is
mostly practiced by the youth .
Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has declared
shisha illegal since operators of pubs,
restaurants have not sought
authorisation for its use . In 2018, the FDA exercised its mandate by clumping
down some shisha joints in Accra . However , since that exercise , much has not
been done to bring this new adventure under control as the youth has been
aggressively patronising shisha wherever its available. Even teenagers as young as 15 years can be
seen in viral videos engaging in the act of smoking hookah which is not a
pleasant thing to boast of .
Its up to the youth to keep advising
theirselves and make their peers aware
of the effects shisha can have on their health as many are ignorant about it
but tend to practice it since their peers are in that act .The authorities
should be swift in their work to make strict laws that would curb this bad
practice , strict sanctions that would bring those involved to book and also
offer counselling and education to the general public since its now getting out
of hand .
blogpay
Total Comments: 0