Fruit-flavoured shisha could be more damaging to smokers’ health than unflavoured pipe tobacco, new research suggests.

Scientists at UAE University found that mice exposed to apple or strawberry-flavoured shisha underwent harmful biochemical changes not seen in those that breathed unflavoured shisha smoke. “Overall, the toxicity of flavoured tobacco WPS (waterpipe) smoking, in particular strawberry-flavoured WPS, was found to be greater than that of unflavoured WPS,” the researchers wrote in their paper in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity.