Vandpibekulturen blandt danske teenagere - Liv.dk

Vandpibekulturen blandt danske teenagere
addiction, there is an urgent need for focused and sustained dissemination
of information in this area
• Not just young people, but especially parents seem obvious as target group
for an information campaign. Partly because not all parents rank waterpipe
smoking alongside cigarette smoking, partly because parents’ views
on tobacco influences young people and their smoking habits and finally
because parents hold natural positions as those who discuss smoking with
their children and who set up rules and boundaries
• It is estimated, however, that a communication initiative alone will not be
enough if the goal is a significant reduction in the number of young waterpipe
smokers. An information campaign should be followed by political
initiatives such as prohibitions on/regulations concerning the amount of
flavors and additives in waterpipe tobacco and a general prohibition on
smoking which would halt a further rise in the number of organized waterpipe
smoking establishments
About 50 pct. of all Danish students in the ninth grade have tried waterpipe smoking.
This is more or less the same percentage as when the same group is polled
on how many have tried smoking cigarettes. Demonstrably, in a short period of
time the waterpipe has moved from a position outside of Danish tobacco culture
to being an integral part of the phase of tobacco experimentation among
children and young people.
Compared to the Middle East and other places with ingrained traditions for waterpipe
smoking, it is not only the explosive growth of the phenomenon which
makes the Danish case special, but also the fact smoking the waterpipe is part of
the youth culture. That is to say, the waterpipe was ’discovered’ by teenagers and
young adults and these are the age groups which typically smoke it today.
Studies on the subject mentions several reasons that the waterpipe have been
introduced in western countries such as Denmark: Globalization have eroded
cultural boundaries so that foreign tradition are more easily adapted; years of opposition
to cigarette smoking in the public opinion have generated a boomerang
effect with respect to new tobacco products, so that for instance the waterpipe
seems healthier and more accepted than the cigarette; increased individualism in
modern society induces us to seek new forms of communities, etc. Based on the
available knowledge on distribution of waterpipe tobacco in Denmark, it is assumed
that the massive growth in the rate of waterpipe smokers very likely would
not have occurred if the Danish tobacco producer, Mac Baren Tobacco Company
A/S, had not chosen to distribute waterpipe tobacco and waterpipes on a mass
scale through the retail and service station industry. Today it is sold in a wide
range of shops, available even in small provincial towns. The hypothesis of this
report is thus clear: The spread of waterpipe smoking in Denmark is a commercially
created development primarily. Mac Baren initiated their push of waterpipe
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