No legal seal of chicha in Ghana – FDA | Social

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has stated that water pipe tobacco, commonly known as shisha, is illegal in Ghana.

Juliana Amankwah-Marfo, FDA regulator, told the Ghana News Agency: "The law requires the FDA to regulate its use. Operators have to register before offering it to the public, but no one has asked us to register. "

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), water pipe tobacco, also known as "hookah or narghile", is a form of tobacco use that uses a single or multiple foot instrument for smoking tobacco, whether it is flavored or not, where the smoke is designed to pbad through water or other liquids before reaching the smoker.

It consists of a tobacco head or tobacco in which tobacco, a body, a bowl of water, a pipe and a mouthpiece are placed.

The operators of most coffee shops and drinking places in urban areas make the water pipes available to their customers who openly inhale the flavored tobacco smoke that emanates from them.

Ms. Amankwah-Marfo urged the public to point out the operators of pubs, restaurants, cafes, among others, who offer them to their customers as well as the shops that trade them.

It revealed that FDA officials seized a number of water pipes in major shopping centers and supermarkets, subject to administrative sanctions.

According to her, they also went to pubs and other places without warning to check the use of these illicit drugs. They seized their equipment and subsequently imposed sanctions, adding that those who refused to comply with these sanctions had been brought to justice.

She called on the general public to help the FDA combat the activities of operators and smokers of illicit drugs, especially chicha, by reporting them to the Authority.

She urged young people to stay out of the way and all other tobacco products prompting them were predisposed to cancer, regretting that "now, they tend to believe that young people mistakenly believe that their health is in good health ",.

A WHO fact sheet indicated that shisha was becoming increasingly popular among young people because of its flavored tobacco.

The mistaken perception that sucking tobacco smoke into the water made it less harmful than smoking.

The WHO said that smoking shisha was dangerous for human health, as laboratory tests of smoke revealed measurable levels of carcinogens and other toxicants that smokers absorb in appreciable amounts.

Increases in heart rate and blood pressure, acute cardiovascular effects, impaired lung function, increased pulmonary inflammation, low birth weight, cancers and male infertility have been reported. other effects of smoking.