Microbiology swabbing of shisha pipes and cleaning practices of shisha cafes in northwest London
| Author(s)
Mohammed Jawad, Amanda Wilson and Andreas Kirschner
| | Presenter(s) |
Dr Mohammed Jawad Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London | Abstract Introduction
Shisha smoking is anecdotally increasing in the UK. Shisha cafes are regular venues for this new phenomenon, where tobacco-filled pipes are shared between peers. This suggests an increased risk of infection transmission, however little is known about the microbiology risk and cleaning practices of shisha cafes.
Method
From six convenience sampled shisha cafes in northwest London, we randomly swabbed the first and last 11cm of 20 ready-to-be-served shisha hose pipes for Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, aerobic colony count, and Staphylococcus aureus. We distributed a cleaning protocols questionnaire to each café manager.
Results
All 20 hoses were lined with a thick, sticky, dark substance but bacterial isolates were undetected. Shisha pipes were cleaned using unstandardised and diverse methods, including two cafes that cleaned their hoses by 'blowing through them' to rid of debris, and two that used bleach-based cleaning fluids. No cafes had cleaning guidelines for their staff, and some cafes claimed to clean pipes after every client but did not have cleaning equipment on site. Four cafe managers believed shisha was less harmful than cigarettes, one of whom thought it was “completely harmless.”
Conclusions
Although bacteria isolates were undetected, shisha pipe cleaning practices were inadequate, and in some cases concerning. Cleaning guidelines for shisha cafes should be created for harm reduction purposes, as part of a wider tobacco control initiative.
| Presenter biography Dr Mohammed Jawad graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine and is currently on the Academic Foundation Programme for junior doctors in the West Midlands. He is also an honorary Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College School of Public Health, where his main research interest is waterpipe tobacco smoking (shisha). He has conducted several shisha projects with NHS Brent and has published material on shisha smoking in peer-reviewed journals.
| Source of funding: This research received no specific funding.
| Declaration of interest: None
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