OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of waterpipe smoking in students of different age groups. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Karachi, Pakistan, from February 2012 to February 2013. METHODOLOGY The subjects were divided into two age groups. Group-I comprised of 13 - 17 years old randomly selected students from O' Level schools in Karachi and group-2 inclu...

Waterpipe (also called hookah, shisha, or narghile) smoking is a common form of tobacco use in the Middle East. Its use is becoming more prevalent in Western societies, especially among young adults as an alternative form of tobacco use to traditional cigarettes. While the risk to cigarette smoking is well documented, the risk to waterpipe smoking is not well defined with limited information on...

OBJECTIVE The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and beliefs of water pipe & cigarette smoking among Qassim University male students. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the students of Literature Colleges, Health Colleges of Qassim University and a self-administered, anonymous, pre-structured, designed proforma was distributed among randomly s...

Introduction: Cigarette smoking affects nitric oxide production. The aim of this study was to determine associations between tobacco smoke and serum nitric oxide metabolites (NOx) concentration. Methods: Serum NOx concentration was measured by the Griess method in 230 nonsmokers, 238 active, 196 passive and 29 waterpipe smokers. Subjects were selected from participants of Tehran Lipid and Gl...

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...

Waterpipe smoking is emerging as a form of tobacco smoking, but its lung health/risks is not known. It has been shown that different mouse strains show differences in susceptibility to tobacco smoke. However, the effect of waterpipe smoke (WPS) exposure and strain differences in susceptibility to oxidative and inflammatory responses is not known. Here, we showed acute WPS exposure induced oxida...

Background: Waterpipe tobacco smoking rates in the Eastern Mediterranean region are some of the highest worldwide, especially among young people. This study aimed to improve our knowledge of the policy-relevant context of waterpipe smoking among six countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and the U...