During their raid on a bar that had committed previous violations, police in Ho Chi Minh City caught dozens of guests illegally smoking imported shisha, a kind of pipe tobacco. Nearly 200 young people were stopped from dancing to music at Sin Lounge, 22 Bis Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, when police officers raided  at midnight on Sunday. The bar is owned by Trung Thuy Group Joint Stock Company, located at 60 - 62 Dong Du Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1. During the raid, police caught numerous guests enjoying shisha, for which the bar’s owner failed to show inspectors any relevant document. The police made a report to seize 20 devices for smoking shisha, and a package of foreign cigarettes. They also confiscated illicit music disks being used by the bar. The bar committed nine other violations, including not posting internal regulations on fire prevention and control. Le Van Quy, deputy head of the HCMC Sub-department for Social Evil Prevention and Control, said the bar had previously committed other violations, such as operating beyond the time limits, playing music so loudly that it disturbed the public, and not paying social insurance for their employees, among others. For example, on March 27, 2013, the bar was fined VND4 million (US$192) for operating beyond regulated hours. On June 17, it was fined again for not paying social insurance for its staff and importing devices for smoking shisha, Quy said. Shisha is an oriental tobacco pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water. A shisha addiction can lead to diseases in regular users. The incomplete combustion produced by tobacco produces carbon monoxide, which impairs the ability of blood to carry oxygen when inhaled into the lungs.

There are several other toxic compounds in tobacco that constitute serious health hazards to long-term smokers from a whole range of causes: vascular abnormalities such as stenosis, lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, impotence, and low birth weight of infants born by smoking mothers.

Also, eight percent of long-term smokers develop the characteristic set of facial changes known to doctors as smoker’s face, according to some medical websites.