CAIRO - AN Egyptian organisation called 'Can Survive' has been warning of the dangers of smoking shisha, a very popular pastime in this country. Meanwhile, according to recent research, smoking shisha for one hour has the same effect as smoking between 100 and 200 cigarettes. Dr Yasser Abdel-Qader, a professor of tumours at Cairo University, says that 70 per cent of lung cancer cases are only discovered at an advanced stage, adding that smoking is mainly to blame for lung cancer. Despite efforts to persuade Egyptians to stop smoking shisha, it's proving more popular than ever here, especially among young people, male and female alike. The School of Dental Medicine at Al-Azhar University recently conducteda study, which discovered a link between shisha smoking andmouth cancer. Commenting on this study, Dr Ibrahim Zoweid, a chest diseases consultant, told the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Massa'iya that many people wrongly believe that smoking shisha is less dangerous than smoking cigarettes. Studies show that shisha smoking is actually more harmful for the heart and lungs than cigarette smoking. Professor of chest diseases Dr Mohamed Awad Tag Eddin warns that fruit-flavoured shisha is also dangerous, as it contains toxic substances that can cause bladder cancer. In addition, tobacco contains nicotine, a toxic substance, which, when it accumulates in the lungs, can lead to lung cancer. Dr Tag Eddin warns of the dangers of cardiac patients smoking shisha because it reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the heart. In order to help people give up smoking, he suggests they drink more soft drinks and take more exercise. They should also avoid eating fatty meals and junk food, and stop hanging out with other smokers. Shisha, originally from Turkey, is smoked by many Egyptians, especially in coffee shops. Poor and rich, educated and uneducated people alike love smoking shisha, enjoying the different flavours such as apple and strawberry. Everywhere from the grottiest café to the most expensive five-star hotel seems to offer their patrons shishathese days. But it also seems that many unemployed people spend all day smoking shisha at coffee shops. Part of the problem is that they have too much free time on their hands, while there aren't enough social and sports clubs for Egypt's younger generation, consists of tens of millions of youths. Many girls, young women and even middle-aged women like to smoke shisha in cafés to express their independence. It's only in the past few years that this habit has really taken off among Egypt's female population. A lot of them say their families would be angry if they smoked at home. Soha Zaki, a 25-year-old worker, smokes apple-flavoured shisha. “This is an indication of my freedom to do what I want whenever I want. Girls in our society have always been overprotected and they're now saying, 'We're big enough to do what we want',” she notes. A young woman called Nagwa sits smoking shisha with her fiancé, Sayyed Ali Karim, at a café in Khan al-Khalili, the famous market in Islamic Cairo. She first started smoking shisha a few years ago, with her friends at university. A waiter at an upmarket coffee shop in Mohandiseen says that more and more of his customers these days are women. “Some of them are still at school. Smoking shisha makes them feel sophisticated,” he comments.
