ANKARA: Just like the centuries-old coffee tradition, the nargileh, or water pipe, is a mainstay of Turkish culture but authorities are clamping down on this ancient social ritual that health experts say is as harmful to health as smoking regular cigarettes. Fans of the water pipe, also known as a hookah or shisha, can no longer get their fix in cafes and restaurants after a law banning smoking from closed public spaces came into force in January.
This new measure is a sign that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) means business in its crackdown on smoking in a country where almost a third of adults puff away.
In 2009, authorities banned smoking in public places and slapped taxes on both alcohol and tobacco products. The tax imposed on cigarettes rose by a staggering 195 percent between 2005 and 2011. The result: a 15-percent drop in cigarette sales.
Cunning hookah cafe managers soon found ways around the ban, taunting authorities by serving customers on outside terraces, but sheltered from the elements by bay windows. Cafes also changed their menus to offer more fruity mixes with a lower tobacco content that won over even Istanbul's more traditional smoking dens, and caught on with tourists.
But this year's measure is more severe, and little appreciated by nargileh fans in the downtown Kizilay neighborhood in the heart of the capital Ankara. "Before 2009, we sold 300 hookahs daily. Now it is only 50 and the new measure will bring down our business," laments Alican Ali, a waiter at the Tombeki cafe.
On the cafe's terrace, students — both girls and boys — pull on their pipes and chat over tea or coffee, or a game of "tavla", the Turkish backgammon. A smell of cinnamon, apricot and apple tobacco fills the air. Popular in much of the Middle East and parts of Asia, the water pipe goes by a number of names including hookah in India and Pakistan and shisha in Egypt. Essentially a male past-time, the nargileh has enjoyed a revival among Turkish young people in recent years and is now smoked by both men and women.
In 2010, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) of 14 countries, supported by the World Health Organization, found that most of Turkey's hookah smokers were aged between 15 and 24.
Keen to cash in on the trend, a crop of specialist websites now offer tobacco flavors ranging from cappuccino to watermelon, and funky cultured bases and hoses to personalize a pipe.
According to findings from the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an hour-long session with a nargileh is the equivalent of inhaling 100-200 cigarettes.
The bigger intake of breath needed to inhale from a water pipe means hookah users may absorb higher concentrations of toxins.
Smoking a shisha can cause the same kinds of diseases as cigarettes, the US center found, including oral and lung cancers, and decrease fertility.
