I was walking through a street in Hanoi and found myself is a place made only for bamboo sales. The streets were covered with it. Vietnamese Bamboo Pipe for Smoking Tobacco. The most popular pipe used for smoking Thuoc Lao, also known as the farmer’s pipe, a popular past time of the pavements of Hanoi.
Smoking in Vietnam is highly common, with an estimated of majority men and some of women using tobacco, an estimated 18 million smokers. 47 million non-smokers in Vietnam are also regularly exposed to tobacco smoke, Vietnam’s Health Education and Communication Center estimates that 40,000 people die annually in Vietnam from first or second hand smoking, and that if nothing is done 10% of the Vietnamese population will have died from smoking by 2030.
Smoking is an integral part of Vietnamese culture and exchanging cigarettes is seen as a common greeting.
However, this is usually attributed to a lack of knowledge and experience. The vast majority of smokers experience little to no adverse affects, compared to cigarette smoking. Despite the risks of Thuốc lào it remains popular in the central and northern parts of the country, especially with minority and rural groups.
(Hanoi, Vietnam)
