Left alone by the anti-smoking lobby, puffing on a narghile - commonly known as a hookah or a hubbly bubbly - is catching the attention of health officials.
If researchers from the American University of Beirut (AUB) have their way, the narghile and all its accessories would have highly visible labels detailing the effects of smoking.
This emerged at a conference on the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Durban, thanks to a group of Lebanese researchers.
Assistant Research Professor Rima Nakkash, who with colleagues has established a stand in the hall where delegates eat, said that while cigarettes across the world had some form of label warning about the dangers of smoking, the much revered hubbly bubbly and its accessories had none.
"It is a fallacy that smoking the narghile is a safer alternative to smoking. It has the same constituents as cigarettes and in some cases it is more dangerous," she said.
Nakkash, who works for the AUB's Health Management and Policy Department, said that there were also concerns that the aluminium foil used in the narghile would give off lead.
In recent years the hubbly bubbly has become increasingly popular among youngsters across the world, including South Africa.
In the Middle East the narghile was traditionally used by elder men, but the youth and women in the region have taken to smoking the hookah in great numbers, according to Nakkash.
Using fruit flavoured products did not make in any safer, she added.
She and her colleagues are advocating that laws be passed to ensure that the filters, pipes, tobacco and the water holder all have large labels warning of the dangers of smoking.
In most countries legislation only covered the smoking of cigarettes and pipes.
Nakkash conceded that more research needed to be done on the health effects of the hubbly bubbly.
According to the Wikipedia all research in the Middle East on the narghile had been sponsored from America. Nakkash's research was funded by the Canadians. - Sapa