Rising number of female hookah smokers worrying

  1. Society
May 31, 2016 - 9:30

TEHRAN – The growing trend of hookah-smoking among women and the youth is worrying and if it is not curbed immediately, it will spread among teenagers, Hassan Azaripour, a health ministry official, said on Thursday.

According to studies, the two groups of women and the youth were the major hookah smokers in the country in 2003, he added.
 
Girls accounted for about nine percent of hookah smokers aged between 13 and 15 in 2003, but the figure rose to 19.5 percent in 2007, he noted.
 
There has been an increase in the number of tobacco smokers aged 13-15 from 12 percent to 17.5 percent, of them 2 percent were the smokers of cigarette, YJC quoted Azaripour as saying.
 
The numbers grew by 24 percent and 2 percent respectively in 2007, he added.
 
NM/