On weekends, many young people hang out at teas shops, where they not only drink tea or other beverages but also enjoy shisha, an addictive substance that can cause diseases in regular users.

>> Police raid bar, catching dozens enjoying shisha Shisha, also called Arab pipe tobacco, can be easily found at many tea shops which are often crowded with young people in Ho Chi Minh City.  On a 100 meter stretch of Le Thi Rieng Street, District 1 there are 20 “tea shops with shisha”. One of them is Pho Tra Chanh, where anyone who likes shisha can enjoy it in a room decorated in an Arab style on the second floor of the shop. The shop provides shisha with different flavors, including watermelon, apple, kiwi, mango, and pear, for VND150,000 (US$7.2) for a small hookah and VND200,000 for a large one. Similar shishas are offered on Pham Viet Chanh and Nguyen Trai Streets in District 1, or on Hung Vuong and An Duong Vuong Streets in District 5. Young people often gather in these tea shops with shisha every night to drink different beverages, including liquor, while enjoying shisha. “Previously, shisha was for wealthy people who would pay millions of dong (VND1 million = $48) to enjoying shisha at bars or discotheques, but now we can only pay VND150,000 to enjoy the same thing,” a young woman named Trang, a student of Nguyen Tat Thanh University, told Tuoi Tre. There is no regulation banning the advertising of shisha, and the additive substance is considered illegal only when it is illicitly imported.   As previously reported, during a raid on Sin Lounge, a bar at 22 Bis Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1 on June 23, Ho Chi Minh City police caught dozens of guests smoking illegally imported shisha. The bar is owned by Trung Thuy Group Joint Stock Company, located at 60 - 62 Dong Du Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1. The bar’s owner failed to show inspectors any relevant document related to the shisha provided there. The police seized 20 devices used for smoking shisha, and a package of foreign cigarettes. The bar committed nine other violations, including not posting internal regulations on fire prevention and control, police said.Cancer risk Shisha is an oriental tobacco pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water, said Dr Trinh Van Hiep, a standing member of the HCMC Program for Tobacco Impact Prevention and Control. A shisha addiction can lead to diseases in regular users. According to a study, the risk of teeth and mouth diseases and lung cancer in shisha smokers is five times higher than in non-smokers, Dr Hiep said. In shisha smokers, the content of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), the protein linked to certain cancers, including lung cancer, increases remarkably in their blood, the doctor said. In addition, 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, heart attacks, strokes, impotence, and low birth weight of infants born by smoking mothers.