Shisha : Sign Of  Status Symbol

 

  Sine past few years, a rising of trend of sheesha smoking has been witnessed in Pakistan. It is also give the name of modern flavoured hookah. There are many reasons which have contributed to its growing popularity...

One of the major reasons for the rise in shisha smoking is the social acceptability. Smoking shisha is actually thought of as a sign of modern lifestyle and status symbol. It is considered to be the new “in” thing in youngster’s circle. Statistics show that the large percentage of shisha consumers comes in the age bracket of 16-34 years.

 Girls stood side by side with the boys, they also enjoy shisha smoking in gatherings… 65 percent Shisha smokers being male, and 35 percent females. Therefore, lots of people to get popular among their friends or due to peer pressure opts for shihsa smoking ..

There is not much awareness among the people regarding its hazardous affects. Even the educated people have this misconception that at least shisha smoking is better than the normal cigarette smoking. Even parents of these young smokers are under this impression that if they will prohibit their children from shisha smoking then they might revert to cigarette smoking. However, WHO in its report has published that smoking 1 hours of shisha is equal to smoking 100 cigarette. The marketing of shisha is just restricted to the wide range of flavours it is available in, it does not encompass the deleterious affect it has on the body of the consumer. 

There has been a large increase in the opening up of restaurants and cafe lounges that offer shisha. This is because there has been a great demand for this product hence, In order to cater to the growing demand investors are investing in shisha bars as they get profitable returns. There is a vicious circle, increase in demand leads to an increase in supply which leads to easy access and hence a greater demand.

Someone needs to take certain actions to put a limit to this growing trend as it is seriously affecting the health of future generation. Apart from putting bans and restrictions on the sale of shisha there is a more dire need of an awareness campaign. The campaign needs to create consciousness among people regarding the harmful affects of shisha smoking..

One puff of Shisha contains more than 4800 active chemicals. Many of these chemicals are known to cause mouth and lung cancers, heart disease, respiratory and other diseases.Sheesha bars use chemicals and sometimes even alcohol, in Sheesha to make it more pleasant


In my opinion, the government has work hard to implement the law banning Shisha. But we all know, when it comes to the implementation, nothing is practiced as per law. there is, need to educate the people about the unhealthy and dangerous effects of the shisha. 

Our religious scholar and researchers should rapidly come forward to educate the people about the dangerous of the shisha because this is the only way by which we can make our young generation safe from this poisonous thing.

It is the duty of the Government to ban shisha restaurants. Shisha cafes in the posh areas of the country are playing with the lives of youngsters and rising trend if shisha in Pakistan is causing exponential cases of lung and heart cancer and other dangerous and serious diseases.