THIS is apropos of your editorial ‘Morality rhetoric’ (April 12). I am surprised you have disapproved a positive step taken by the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi to close cafes which were providing sheesha smoking facility in the DHA.

Tomorrow if some entrepreneur opens in the DHA a 2.00a.m pub like one can see in the UK, should it also go unnoticed. Who says that smoking of sheesha is risk-free? It is, in fact, a sure recipe for carcinoma. I am shocked to read that “Young people’s morals are their own concern, or at best that of their parents”.

Are you saying that the society at large has no role to play to control noticeable waywardness of our youth?

I searched the adverse effects of sheesha smoking on the Internet which informs us that ‘the misunderstanding about sheesha tobacco is that it must be much less harmful to the human body as compared to smoking cigarettes, since the tobacco is breathed in through water’.

Nevertheless, MayoClinic.com points out that sheesha smoke also includes tar residue, deadly carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds along with other toxic chemical substances.

These types of chemicals may be cancer causing within the body. Sheesha smoking could raise the chance of cancers, especially of the lips, mouth area, tongue, throat as well as lungs.

The large degree of smoke through sheesha might also cause chemical substance discomfort of the lung area, resulting in or deteriorating allergy-induced bronchial asthma.

After this logical medical revelation, should you still insist that the sheesha cafes should be given a free hand to thrive and attract unsuspecting youth of our country? In all fairness, the DHA deserves accolades for a morally correct action.

SAFIR A. SIDDIQUI Islamabad