Until the 20th century, water pipe smoking was a part of the Asian and Northern African culture. Since then, this type of smoking has spread in Europe and Northern America, becoming more and more trendy worldwide. Whatever the name given to the device – hookah, shisha, nargile – the general perception of such smoking is that since tobacco is not burnt, but heated, and the smoke filtered through water, it is less harmful.
However, to date, very little scientific work has been produced on either the tobacco mixture itself or the emissions. Work started at ISO on a preliminary level in 2010, but the work of the ad hoc group was stopped in 2016 with the outcome of four drafted documents for proposed further projects, but with no scientific bases due to the lack of scientific and analytical resources.
The CORESTA Board considered that further research was required and launched a survey to evaluate interest in such research.
The deadline for providing feedback was 16 June 2017.