The British Heart Foundation is warning of the dangers of smoking shisha pipes as new data reveals a dramatic rise in the number of shisha bars across the UK.

Betty McBride, British Heart Foundation's director of policy and communications, told the Today programme's Evan Davis they were "staggered" to find that 27 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds had used a shisha pipe.

She said that the practise of smoking a shisha pipe has "really taking off amongst young people".

But she warned that an hour-long shisha session was the equivalent of smoking 100 cigarettes.

It may seem "romantic and wonderful but it is still a killer" she added, before going on to urge people to use National No Smoking Day as a good opportunity to quit smoking altogether.

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