Young people smoking shisha like locomotive engines – Sam George laments rising kidney cases

Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Constituency, Samuel Nartey George has bemoaned what is says is the rising cases of kidney failure among the youth.

According to the MP, while some people may have been diagnosed with the condition due to no fault of theirs, a good number of the cases reported among the youth are due to poor life choices including the rampant smoking of flavoured tobacco popularly known as shisha.

“I am going to say something that Ghanaian youth will not be happy about but look, we are a very irresponsible people when it comes to our healthcare and our life choices.

"There are people who have developed kidney challenges by no fault of theirs but a majority of those reporting with this thing is just horrible, irresponsible life choices,” he stated during an interview on Joynews.

“They are smoking like locomotive engines, they have dumped cigarettes and have jumped on that killer called shisha and it is killing; you drive in Accra, around East Legon and you see young people putting off steam like locomotive engines all in the name of fashion,” he added.

The recent increase in reported cases of kidney failures has led to a widespread public concern among the population.

Coupled with this, the Renal Unit at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital which provides dialysis services to persons with such conditions has been shut down for sometime now.

Amidst the concerns being raised, Sam George noted that key health and lifestyle choices such as what to eat, drink and inhale have been become a key contributory factor in the decline of health among the youth population.

“They’ve flavoured death for you in pineapple, watermelon and whatever flavour and you are licking death. I mean, we are not eating well. Alcohol; we are a country of just 33 million and we have almost a hundred different types of bitters. I mean, all kinds of concoctions in the name of aphrodisiacs.

“It’s like we are a sex crazy generation that needs to do anything and everything just to prove a point. We are drinking the wrong things, eating the wrong things and smoking our lungs into oblivion. We need to check our life choices as a country. It’s a problem; it is a pandemic,” the MP lamented.


Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

You can also watch the latest episode of Everyday People on GhanaWeb TV below: