A campaign to raise awareness of the dangers and legality of smoking shisha, otherwise known as hookah, has been launched to tackle common misconceptions.
A multi-agency team, led by Manchester City Council's licensing and out of hours team, visited shisha cafes in Rusholme, to deliver the health message and to ensure that cafes and customers were complying with legislation.
Population health postcards warning of the health risks as well as the legality of smoking shisha were distributed to all the cafes and their customers.
The campaign says that, contrary to popular belief, smoking shisha is not safer than smoking cigarettes. It adds that studies have shown that one hour of smoking shisha can be as damaging to health as smoking 100 cigarettes.