Water pipes 'more harmful than cigarettes'

World health experts warned on Thursday that smoking water pipes, long popular in the Middle East and North Africa and with a growing fan base elsewhere, can be more harmful than cigarettes.

"A single puff from a water pipe is nearly equal to the volume of smoke inhaled from an entire cigarette," said the authors of The Tobacco Atlas, a book about the global impact of smoking that was launched at the World Conference on Tobacco Or Health in Abu Dhabi.

World Health Organization tobacco expert Edouard Tursan d'Espaignet said "one session of shisha (water pipe) can be equal to smoking 20 to 30 cigarettes in one go, which can be very dangerous".