Dubai: New mandatory registration of shisha tobacco products in the UAE is the latest government effort to stamp out smoking.
Senior health officials lauded the push by the Emirates Standardisation and Metrology Authority (Esma) to control shisha tobacco production, distribution and consumption.
The registration will ensure that shisha tobacco products meet UAE standards specified under Esma’s product certification programme Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS). The standards apply to disclosure of ingredients and health warnings.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a typical hour-long shisha smoking session involves inhaling 100-200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. Shisha or water pipe smokers are at risk of the same kinds of diseases caused by cigarette smoking, including oral cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, cancer of the oesophagus, reduced lung function and decreased fertility.
Welcoming the first phase of mandatory registration, Dr Wedad Al Maidour, head of the National Tobacco Control Programme and Director of Primary Healthcare Centres from Dubai’s Ministry of Health, said that monitoring was key in any kind of tobacco control.
Speaking to Gulf News, she said: “At this moment, we don’t know how many shisha products are on the market. We do not know the levels of toxicity or to what degree they can harm one’s health. Through standardisation we can at least control shisha tobacco import and consumption.”
In light of the regulation implemented in August 2012 when five graphic images — three for cigarette and two for shisha products, were made mandatory, Dr Al Maidour said regulation of shisha tobacco was the next step. “In the future, dokha [tobacco smoked through a ‘midwakh’ pipe] will be regulated.”
The issue of shisha smokers is especially relevant among the younger population, said Dr Bassam Mahboub, consultant respiratory physician at Rashid Hospital, Dubai. He published a study based on a country-wide survey in 2012, pegging the number of shisha smokers at 30 per cent in the age group of 22-44. The study was in conjunction with a research team led by Dr Sulaiman Al Hammadi, of UAE University, Al Ain.
Dr Mahboub told Gulf News that the prevalence of shisha and dokha smokers was on the rise among the younger generation who often wrongly think they are safer and less hazardous alternatives to cigarette tobacco. “Registration of shisha tobacco is a step in the right direction if we are to address the growing and potentially epidemic problem of youngsters taking up smoking,” he said.
Dr Hanan Obaid, from Dubai Health Authority, said the benefits of registration extended to controlling shisha tobacco use among the under population and regulating the consumption at restaurants and cafes.
“It will also ensure that unauthorised tobacco products are not sold,” she said.
