A doctor at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has warned that shisha smoking exposes the body to cancer.

The narcotic has caught on in Ghana’s urban centres where some businessmen are cashing in on the craze by building lounges across the major cities in the country.

In many of Accra’s popular joints at Labadi, Osu, Cantonments, Dzorwulu and East Legon, several young adults spend about three hours – the average time for a single shisha session – smoking the narcotic, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), equals the time for smoking 100 sticks of cigarette.

Speaking with Class FM’s Binta Ceesay, a 29-year-old shisha addict said he has been hooked on the narcotic for eight years. “These days, I’ve been smoking like maybe twice in a week; there was a time when I used to smoke at least two or three times a day,” he said.

Despite admitting that he had been advised by his doctor to quit smoking because of the destructive effects of shisha, the young addict said he is unable to kick the habit.

“There was a time when I used to smoke like two or three times a day, but it got to some point when I noticed I was having issues with myself, so I was finally like: ‘Ok, I guess I need to stop smoking, for health purposes and all that.’ It’s not healthy for one to be smoking twice or three times a day or something, so, I just have to let go of it,” the anonymous smoker told Binta Ceesay.

Research has linked shisha to cancer, a fact corroborated by Dr. Dodi Abdulai of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. “It’s worse than cigarettes and we all know the damaging effects of cigarettes. Meanwhile, let me tell you that smoking is responsible for virtually all cancer, it is a risk factor, except for just one or two, but virtually in all parts of the body you can have cancer.”

“Cigarette is one and it is directly related to it and proportional to the number of sticks that you smoke a day. So if you have a substance that is equivalent to hundred sticks, it’s crazy, you are putting your life at risk,” the medical practitioner continued. “It’s a big health crisis, especially when it’s uncontrolled and people don’t have any information about it.”

And at GH¢20 a pop, shisha is quite expensive for its young patrons, many of whom earn little to no income.

And then, too, is the problem presented by smokers who puff the narcotic in the open air despite regulation against such. Section 23 of the Public Health Act states that tobacco products should not be smoked in public places, including bars, restaurants, and pools whether open or enclosed. But this is being violated at will.