The Ministry of health is raising awareness on the dangers of Shisha an emerging tobacco product patronized in some public entertainment joints across the country.

The Ministry’s focal person on tobacco control, Dr. Kyei Faried warns that one puff of the vaporized product is equivalent to smoking one whole stick of cigarette.

Shisha,a new craze for the youth, is a vaporized tobacco product, sucked through tubes.

Dr. Farried says the product has more dangerous health consequences than normal cigarettes.

He says the Ministry in collaboration with the Food and Drugs Board has moved to destroy many billboards advertising the product across the country.

Dr. Kyei Farried was speaking at the launch of the World no tobacco day in Kumasi organized by the coalition of NGOs in health and the Ghana Health Service.

"It is increasing flooding of our system with Shisha equipment and you have students especially schoolgirls who think it is fun to puff Shisha. The sad thing is that one puff is equivalent to a pack of cigarette," Mr. Farried said.

He said although it passes through a pipe, it is more dangerous than the cigarette. 

"The industry is now trying to flavor tobacco products by putting menthol and other things in it to give it a fine flavor and to tell consumers that it is now better," Mr. Farried stated. 

The Health Ministry has torn down many of the Shisha billboards at places like the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) junction in Kumasi. In Accra, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has pulled down some billboards with Shisha machines on them.

According to Mr Farried, having the machines on the billboards amounts to tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship which the Public Health Act (Part VI) is against.

He disclosed that the FDA is reviewing the importation levies to heavily tax those who import the Shisha machine.