or aspiration of frank pus requires drainage of pleural cavity, we wish to point out that, in the majority of cases, this can be done safely by ‘specialist teams’withinworkinghoursanddoesnot require urgent out-of-hours chest drain insertions.3 3. The National Patient Safety Agency 2008 rapid response entitled Risk of chest drain insertion highlights the potential and sometimes fatal complicatio...

I enjoyed the review of the management of atrial fibrillation in practice by Fitzmaurice and Hobbs; it concisely covered the salient points on this hugely important topic.1 However, I would like to highlight one important aspect on the current management of atrial fibrillation and in particular relation to the use of novel oral anticoagulants. These are often (mis) described as ‘not needing mon...

OBJECTIVE It is widely held that waterpipe smoking (WPS) is not associated with health hazards. However, several studies have documented the uptake of several toxicants and carcinogens during WPS that is strongly associated with harmful health effects. This paper reviews the literature on the health effects of WPS. DATA SOURCES Three databases-PubMed, MEDLINE and EMBASE-were searched until Au...

INTRODUCTION Our aim was to assess the visibility and efficiency of graphic health warnings (GHWs) on waterpipe tobacco packs (WTPs) and to explore other more effective places to display them for better impact. We also evaluated the visibility of GHWs when placed on the waterpipe device. METHODS We conducted 3 cross-sectional study phases using face-to-face survey questionnaires in 2014-2015. P...

Second-hand smoke is a major cause of preventable disease and death in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. To assess how second-hand smoke impacts air quality, respirable suspended particles (PM2.5) which are emitted during cigarette and waterpipe smoking, were measured inside and outside of 18 smoking and 5 nonsmoking public venues in Gaza city. Median PM2.5 level inside the smoking venues was 1...