Doctors in the UAE have warned that a single hour-long shisha session can be as harmful as smoking around 40 cigarettes, cautioning that many shisha users do not consider themselves smokers, a misconception that delays diagnosis of respiratory illness.
Dr Mohammed Fawzi Katranji, a pulmonologist at Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group, said an hour-long shisha session can be equivalent, in terms of respiratory harm, to smoking roughly 40 cigarettes. He noted that the different ritual and social context of shisha use often leads people to underestimate its real risk compared with cigarette smoking.
Dr Rachael Kaminski, a consultant respiratory physician at Saudi German Hospital, added that typical shisha sessions often last between two and four hours, which could be equivalent to smoking up to 200 cigarettes. She warned that this lack of awareness about the true scale of harm delays diagnosis of conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among shisha users.
The warnings follow findings presented at the "Quit Like Sweden: The Swedish Experience" conference, which emphasised the need to identify shisha users as an at-risk group for respiratory disease. Doctors urged UAE residents who smoke shisha regularly, even socially, to undergo routine respiratory health checks and take the habit seriously, stressing that the common belief that shisha is safer than cigarettes has no scientific basis.