Since Zamindari era water pipe smoking has been considered as royalty. This smoking is popularly known as “Hookah” in rural areas of Bangladesh. This special kind of smoking was enjoyed mainly by the elite class during that period. It is said that water pipe smoking was designed by a personal doctor of Mughal emperor Akbar and the name of that doctor was “Abul Fathe Jelane Hukkar”. Subsequently, people learned this new form of smoking.
Though it was mainly designed for the elite people of the society it gradually spread out to other classes. The rural farmers use to have “Hookah” in their leisure time. However they used coconut shell to make a water pipe which was different from that of pipe smoking. Although this tradition is prevalent among our villagers, it is gradually being abolished from the country.
However, hookah has got a new shape in recent times which are called “Shisha”. This has influenced the new generation highly which resulted in a lot of “Shisha Bars” in Dhaka city. The more popular name of Shisha bars are Shisha lounge.
Whether it is a way of boasting royalty or a medium of addiction, tobacco inevitably harms human body. There is a common belief that shisha is less harmful than cigarette and safer than traditional hookah. The reason for this is that smoke of shisha comes from water which refines its smoke. But research found no evidence as such which can prove that shisha is less harmful. People unaware about the harmful effects of shisha are hooked to the addiction. Even after it passes through water, the smoke produced by a hookah contains high levels of toxic substance, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and cancer-causing chemicals. It is also responsible for cardiovascular disease. Due to the mode of smoking including frequency of puffing, depth of inhalation, and length of the smoking session hookah smokers may absorb higher concentrations of toxic elements found in cigarette smoke.
Hookah smoking is more time consuming. For instance, we can say it takes five minutes to smoke a cigarette whereas hookah session takes forty to fifty minutes to complete. A typical 1-hour-long hookah smoking session involves inhaling 100–200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.
As it is clear that shisha is ten times more harmful than cigarette, our society is quite reluctant to resolve this issue. The government, law enforcement agencies and the parents must take necessary steps immediately to pull the generation out of the darkness of shisha addiction. For young generation, shisha lounge may be a source of delight, a place to chit-chat, but shisha smoking is a slow poison which eventually leads to addiction. Hence, our youth should avoid this so called delicacy and engage in non-harmful activities to cater to their pleasure.