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Research paper
Health warning labelling practices on narghile (shisha, hookah) waterpipe tobacco products and related accessories
  1. Rima Nakkash,
  2. Joanna Khalil
  1. Department of Health Behavior and Education, Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
  1. Correspondence to Dr Rima Nakkash, Health Behavior and Education Department, Center for Research on Population and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, PO, Riad El Solh, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon; rima.nakkash{at}aub.edu.lb

Abstract

Background Waterpipe tobacco smoking prevalence is increasing around the globe despite current evidence that smoke emissions are toxic and contain carcinogenic compounds.

Objective To evaluate current health warning labelling practices on waterpipe tobacco products and related accessories.

Methods All waterpipe tobacco products, as well as waterpipe accessories, were purchased from Lebanon and a convenience sample was obtained from Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Canada, Germany and South Africa.

Findings Of the total number of waterpipe tobacco products collected from Lebanon, the majority had textual health warning labels covering on average only 3.5% of total surface area of the package. Misleading descriptors were commonplace on waterpipe tobacco packages and related accessories.

Conclusions There are no WHO FCTC compliant waterpipe-specific health warning labels on waterpipe tobacco products and related accessories. Introducing health warnings on waterpipe tobacco products and accessories will probably have worldwide public health benefits.

  • Waterpipe
  • shisha
  • narghile
  • hookah
  • health warnings
  • WHO FCTC Article 11
  • nontraditional modes of tobacco use
  • packaging and labelling
  • public policy
  • tobacco products

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2009.031773

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    Footnotes

    • Funding Supported by the Global Tobacco Control Forum with funding from Health Canada.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.