Myanmar: Hidden in Smoke

Source from:  Myanmar Times (mm)  10/14/2013

EVEN as more people become aware of the dangers of smoking – it's hard to miss when almost every cigarette packet has a warning emblazoned on it – the new socially acceptable vice among hip Myanmar youth is shisha smoking.

The shisha, a water pipe also known as a hookah, is a vessel where tobacco is smoked through a bendable hose, or pipe, which is filtered through a water chamber. The tobacco is often flavoured with a fruit flavour and emits a pleasant odour rather than the harsh tobacco smell often associated with cigarette smoke.

Perhaps it's for this reason that hookah smoking is growing in popularity, especially among young women.

Ma Sue Choe, 22, said she discovered smoking shisha when she lived in San Fransisco in 2011.

"It's different from cigarettes which taste toxic," she said. "My friends and I would go to a bar to catch up a couple of times a week and it felt more social to share a pipe while we talked."

"I like the taste and the smell of shisha – but it's not easy for me to explain to my parents why I like it."

While there hasn't been any research conducted in Myanmar as to the uptake of hookah smoking among youth, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in June of this year that there has been a widespread increase in hookah smoking around the world. Part of that could be due to the hookah industry marketing itself as a better alternative to cigarettes.

In Yangon, however, it's also seen as a status symbol.

"Shisha isn't so readily available and there is a lot of cost involved – more than if I were to buy a packet of cigarettes," said Ko Aung Zin Latt, 28.

"We have to go out to a restaurant or bar to smoke, and it's fashionable."

Ko Aung Sit The, 30, agrees, and said he believed smoking shisha was better for his health than cigarettes.

"There is not as much tar as cigarettes and there's only 1 percent nicotine," he said.

But local doctor Christoph Gelsdorf said that while there is a perception among young people that smoking from a hookah is safer than cigarettes, the research in the health industry so far suggests otherwise.

"Most typically what is smoked is a moist fruit preparation mixed with tobacco, which increases the risk of lung cancer and respiratory illness," he said.

The use of charcoal to heat the tobacco is another risk, containing carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer causing chemicals.

A report by the World Health Organization says water-pipe smoking delivers the same amount of nicotine into the blood stream as cigarette smoking. And due to the mode of smoking – through a water vessel – hookah smokers may absorb higher amounts of toxins than those who smoked just cigarettes.

"Additionally, a study earlier this year that compared cigarette and hookah smokers found that water-pipe smokers had higher levels of toxins that cause red blood cell damage," Dr Gelsdorf said. "So clearly shisha smoking is not a safe alternative to cigarettes, and may in fact be more dangerous in some ways." Enditem