Not many are aware that the tobacco served in Al Fakher tobacco hookah bars can cause serious problems among the youth. Flavoured tobaccos served in hookah bars are imported from western countries and contain 5% of nicotine.
The health and police department had conducted raid on two hookah bars in city on Monday and found many youngsters there. The police registered two separate cases against hookah bar managers in Sarabha Nagar and Tagore Nagar on Tuesday.
SHO, police station division number 8, Naveen Singla, said mostly minors were sitting in these bars and around 60 persons were waiting for their turn. He said they have sent the samples collected from these bars to the forensic lab at Chandigarh, the report of which would come within one month.
Jagdeep Whig, a consultant in medicine, said inhaling hookah tobaccos is as harmful as smoking cigarette. “As it has nicotine, hookah can cause asthma, tuberculosis, malignancies, chest infections and lung cancer,’ he said.
Ranjive Mahajan, a psychiatric, said flavoured hookah tobacco contains nicotine that is a stimulant and addictive drug.
Meanwhile, the district health department has handed over the samples to the police and is waiting for the reports to come. Its officials said they would be raiding other hookah bars as well.