ENVIRONMENTAL Health officers from Worcestershire have been given shisha pipe training.

Staff joined health professionals to learn more about safety issues regarding the pipes as part of a multi-agency training event.

Worcestershire Regulatory Services, in association with NHS Worcestershire Public Health Department, ran the free event at Worcester Warriors Rugby Club on October 18.

The training exercise aimed to bring together Environmental Health officers, Trading Standards officers and health professionals - including stop smoking advisers – in a session which provided useful information about shisha use, the potential health risks and to raise awareness of the enforcement issues that may be encountered by regulatory services.

Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services, Steve Jorden, said: “Shisha smoking is a new and growing concern and there is a worrying increase in the use of these pipes in our communities.

“It is scary that just one session of smoking shisha is equivalent to smoking 100-200 cigarettes but, because of the myths around shisha smoking, people don’t realise this and so continue to smoke it.

“To tackle the health and enforcement problems associated with shisha we need to understand the issues, promote the health implications and work collaboratively which is why this event was very important.”