Increase engagement with communities which use these substances. NICE recommends local authority led interventions, engaging community leaders and ensuring that communities have access to oral health advice.
An independent national review on the use of these substances with recommendations and effectiveness reviewed on an annual basis.
What is the problem?
Many myths persist around shisha use: that it is not as harmful as smoking cigarettes, that flavoured shisha is harmless, that water filters out impurities.
Shisha smoking creates significant levels of carbon monoxide poisoning and smokers inhale more smoke than from cigarettes.
Herbal Shisha produces large amounts of carbon monoxide and a high level of other toxins associated with smoking.
Both the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organisation are clear that betel quid and areca nut are carcinogenic to humans.
The Mouth Cancer Foundation states that people using paan are five times more likely to develop mouth cancer than people who do not.
Many people who take betel nut in one form or another are not aware that it is carcinogenic.
