Shisha smoking increases breast cancer risk among young women – Expert Warns

Health experts have warned that smoking shisha significantly increases the risk of developing breast cancer, especially among young women. The warning came during a breast screening exercise organised as part of activities marking October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Secretary for the Cancer Support Network Foundation, Blaise Ackom, said contrary to the popular perception that shisha is a safer alternative to cigarettes, it is even more dangerous due to its high content of carcinogenic chemicals. According to him, shisha contains heavy metals, lead, arsenic and tar, while its appealing flavours encourage prolonged use among young women. “Our youth feel that smoking shisha is another safe method of smoking, which is never true; even smoking shisha is more dangerous than normal cigarettes.

Shisha contains heavy metals; shisha contains lead, arsenic, and tar, and the most worrying thing is that because of the flavours — the apple, the strawberry, the cappuccino, the mint flavours — a lot of young ladies take it for a long period of time,” Mr Ackom said. “You can get a young girl who takes shisha for like one or two hours, and taking shisha for like an hour is equal to 100 cigarettes, and all these things contain carcinogenic chemicals which can damage your cell DNA, causing these cells to multiply, thereby forming a tumour, and it affects your breasts,” he added. Mr Ackom acknowledged government support through the Mahama Cares Trust Fund but said more funding was needed. “Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are creating greater awareness of this disease because we know that it’s a public health condition. Usually we preach that early detection is key, but in recent times what we’ve seen is that most people detect some of these issues early, but the…