The exact amount of toxins per shisha session depends on factors such as the amount of tobacco, type of tobacco, type of charcoal and duration of smoking
The main sources of toxins are the shisha charcoal, the tobacco and the molasses
An overview of typical exposures per shisha session (approx. 45 – 60 min), based on public literature and guideline values from scientific studies:
| Toxicant Amounts per Shisha Session (approx. values) | |
| Toxicant | Estimated Amount per Session |
| Benzol | 50 – 500 µg |
| Formaldehyde | 200 – 600 µg |
| Arsenic | 10 –100 ng |
| Chromium | 50 – 100 ng |
| Nickel | 100 – 1000 ng |
| Lead | 100 – 800 ng |
| Cadmium | 10 – 100 ng |
The quantities appear small, but these substances are toxic and carcinogenic even in very small doses, and heavy metals in particular accumulate in the body, and the fact that our filter material also significantly reduces non-pollutants contained in smoke (sodium, calcium) is proof of its filtering capacity for substances in smoke.
Filtering is a non-specific physical process that works in the same way for all substances of this type, assuming that a tobacco is smoked that contains many more harmful substances, then the filter capacity of the input material leads to a correspondingly higher reduction in the smoke for these harmful substances.
Dr. Christoph Hönnscheidt
