Lebanon top in youth hookah prevalence and smoking

Citing a study published by AUB, Al Akhbar reported that around 21.5% of adult females and 48.6% of adult males in Lebanon are cigarette smokers against respectively 46.2 % and 32.7% young females and males who smoke water-pipe or hookah. The prevalence of smoking among underage, Al Akhbar wrote, is more staggering. Nearly 32.9% of young women against 40.9% of young men aged between 13-17 years, are current smokers (with an average of more than 36% of total underage), according to the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) for 2017. Citing an earlier study by AUB, Al Akhbar also mentioned that Lebanon ranked first out of 68 countries around the world in terms of rates of water-pipe smokers’ among the young population. It pointed to different types of tobacco consumption by minors which made imperative to enter Medwakh pipes (Arabian product consisting of dried shredded tobacco mixed with herbs and spices) in the student targeted surveys. It said that respectively 2.7% and 6.7% of young males and females (aged 12 to 18) are current Medwakh smokers! On the subject, Rana Saleh, Advocacy and Evidence Lead Specialist at the Knowledge to Policy (K2P) Center, AUB, told Al Akhabr that smoking rates in Lebanon are alarming, adding that when a person starts nicotine intake at a young age, Saleh explained, he/she will develop other forms later on in life.  (For more, kindly review the following link: https://bit.ly/2NHfisV). (Al Akhbar, June 30, 2020)