麻豆社

Shisha is more popular than ever - shisha cafes have become a common sight in our cities, shisha parties are springing up on University campuses and we're even doing it at home. But there's a storm brewing in the world of the hubble bubble pipe. Presenter, Konnie Huq investigates.

"I'd heard that shisha is much safer than smoking cigarettes, doesn't the water purify the tobacco?" - Regular shisha user.

"I was shocked at the levels of harm from smoking shisha, and none of the tests we did showed anything other than the fact that shisha smoking is hazardous to your health" - Director of the Tobacco Control Collaboration Centre.

In this Asian Network Report Special, we reveal new Department of Health research, showing how many users could be slowly killing themselves. And we conduct our own experiment in which one shisha smoker's carbon monoxide levels go off the scale. With recent reports of young people in Leicestershire collapsing due to lack of oxygen while smoking hookah pipes and kids as young as 11 taking up the habit, should the government be doing more to alert us to the health risks?

Producer : Nicola Humphries
Series Producer : Perminder Khatkar

This documentary was first broadcast on 24 August 2009.