A medical expert, Dr Moji Fasiku has frowned at Sisha, a newly introduced form of smoking embraced by youths, saying it is another way of introducing them to lungs cancer.
Fasiku spoke on Thursday in Ilorin at a sensitisation seminar on lungs cancer organised by the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Medical Womens’ Association of Nigeria (MWAN) and Civil Society on cancer eradication in Nigeria (CiSCENAN).
The doctor said Sisha was a new way of smoking embraced by youths, especially in parties and clubs, believing it contained a flavoured smoke which was not true.
“Sisha is a single or multi stemmed instrument for vapourising and smoking floured tobacco.
“Our youths are made to believe that Sisha is safer for them than cigarettes smoking, but it also contains nicotine in large percentage.
“And now that the Federal government has banned public smoking, they see it as a way out to enjoy themselves.
“Not knowing that they are exposing themselves to diseases that comes up later in life because lungs cancer isn’t detected early enough, it manifests in a later stage in life,’’ Fasiku said.
She added that though smoking cigarettes was one of the major causes of lungs cancer, inhalation of smoke by cooking with firewood was also exposing people to lungs cancer.
Fasiku called on the Federal Government to subsidise gas and kerosene in the country to provide a better alternative to firewood use.
“Women that cook with firewood, especially caterers are also being exposed to lungs cancer, but it is their source of livelihood and we cannot ask them to stop.
“So, I am calling on the government to subsidise the alternatives to help us save our women.
“This is because normally cancer is predominant in men than women, but in the last 10 years, the number of women diagnosed with lungs cancer has increased greatly,’’ she said.
The medical expert named other causes of lungs cancer as environmental pollution, viruses, family history, asbestos exposure and randon gas.
She said though symptoms of lungs cancer does not show early but in a later stage, it was one of the cancers that were preventable.
Earlier in her remarks, the Chairperson of Kwara NAWOJ, Mrs Binta Mora said cancer was a major health problem in Nigeria that was eating deep into our health.
“It is so because we do not know what we are expected to know in terms of precautions to take and symptoms to watch out for.
“So, we see this seminar as imperative because not so much has been said about lungs cancer as was the case with other cancers,’’ Mora said.