Manchester City Council

Health and wellbeing Smoking Shisha

Shisha is as harmful as cigarettes

Smoking shisha can seriously damage your health, and land you with a £50 fine.

Smoking shisha could increase the spread of Coronavirus

Sharing pipes and mouthpieces increases the risk of spreading a number of infections, including Coronavirus. 

If you smoke in a shisha cafe, the close proximity to other smokers, as well as the exhaled smoke in the surrounding air may also increase your risk. 

We recommend that you protect yourself and your family and friends by taking the following precautions:

  • Maintain a safe distance 
  • Wash your hands before setting up your shisha pipe
  • Use a disposable shisha pipe mouth tip when smoking and do not share it
  • Avoid sharing pipes 
  • Do not smoke indoors (to do so is also a breach of the Health Act if you do so in a shisha cafe) 
  • Sanitize and clean your shisha pipe after use 

Think shisha is harmless? Think again:

  • the water does not filter out the harmful tobacco smoke
  • the flavours mask the tobacco taste
  • you can get addicted because you're inhaling addictive nicotine
  • long smoking sessions and deep inhalation mean more toxins.

Not only are you damaging your own health, you're threatening the health of people around you.

Think shisha is always legal? Think again:

  • the law treats shisha the same as cigarette smoking
  • it's illegal to smoke shisha, even if it's tobacco-free, in an enclosed or mostly-enclosed public place or workplace
  • if you break the rules you can be fined £50.

For help to stop smoking shisha and other forms of tobacco, visit the NHS Smokefree website.

Find out more

See more about shisha, health and the law at:

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