Shisha smoking examined

Regular shisha smoking is associated with a reporting of substantially more respiratory symptoms in young adults, according to a story in The Jordan Times citing a new study conducted by the King Hussein Cancer Center’s (KHCC) Cancer Control Office (CCO).

The study, funded by the KHCC, was conducted ‘because little is known about the early onset effects of regular shisha smoking’, the center said in a statement released on Wednesday.

‘Given that young populations are driving the spread of this popular trend, it is important to assess the early damage associated with regular shisha use [among] the youth,’ the statement added.

The two-year pilot study, recently published in the journal Respiratory Medicine, measured the effect of habitual long-term water pipe use on pulmonary symptoms, pulmonary function, and cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in young men.

The findings are drawn from data on 138 young healthy males between the ages of 18 and 26, where 69 shisha smokers were compared to 69 non-smokers.

“Our findings were alarming at all levels of investigation,” the lead researcher Feras Hawari, chief of the pulmonary and critical care section and director of the CCO, was quoted in the statement as saying.

“Young adults who smoke shisha regularly have a greater burden of respiratory symptoms than [do] adults of their age who do not smoke. These symptoms – cough, shortness of breath and sputum production – may not seem so severe, but they all are signs of a distressed respiratory system, and are shocking to see at such an early age,” Hawari said.

“Our data also show that shisha smokers have impaired lung function readings that trend lower than those of non-smokers, and also have a reduced exercise capacity,” he added.