Azerbaijan, Baku, April 24 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
The situation with hookah-smoking women in Iran has worsened, according to Secretary of Organization against smoking among population, Mohammadrza Masjedi, ISNA reported.
"The hookah smoking among girls and women in Iran has increased by 10 percent," Masjedi said.
Speaking of tobacco smoking, Masjedi said that the age level for it also dropped down from 14 to 10 years, adding that the tobacco smoking increased among young people and school students.
He further criticized local Iranian companies who fight against tobacco smoking, and said that in Iran the fight against smoking is being implemented as it should.
Masjedi also referred to statistics, noting that compared to other cities of Iran, people smoke a lot more in the capital.
Last Iranian calendar year, the country imported over 8000 tons of cigarettes. Switzerland and the UAE, Turkey and South Korea were the main source of cigarette exports to Iran.
A new study conducted at the University of California San Francisco has revealed that because the toxins in shisha smoke are different from toxins in cigarette smoke, it doesn't make smoking hookah any less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
Researchers said that on average, participants smoked three water-pipe sessions or 11 cigarettes per day. Researcher then measured levels of toxins in the blood, breath and urine during and at the end of each type of smoking session.
The results were astounding. While hookah smoking resulted in about half the amount of total nicotine compared to cigarette smoking, hookah smoking exposed participants to significantly higher levels of carbon monoxide, which is especially dangerous for people with heart risks, and benzene, which has been higher leukemia risk, compared to cigarette smoking.
Researchers found that the total amount of carbon monoxide in the breath measured during a 24-hour period was more than 2.5 times higher than while smoking cigarettes.
Carbon monoxide exposure increases a person's risk for acute events such as a heart attack, stroke or sudden death in people who have cardiovascular or lung diseases.
After analyzing urine samples, researchers found that the amount of a metabolite of benzene in the urine of hookah smokers was twice the amount of levels detected in cigarette smokers.