American Hookah

[Gob]

A campaign is growing in the US to put the regulation of hookah smoking in public spaces on a par with cigarette controls.

If exotic-looking cigarette lounges that extolled the pleasures of flavoured tobacco suddenly appeared on US streets, health-conscious Americans would be demanding action from the authorities.

Why, then, tolerate bars or campus rooms where, health officials warn, users of the hookah water pipe may breath in 100-200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette during a typical one-hour session?

According to a New York Times article this week, legislators, college administrators and health advocates from California to Connecticut are taking action against what many of them call the newest front in an ever-shifting war on tobacco.

Gayle Slossberg, a state senator in Connecticut who is backing a local bill to control hookah lounges, believes many young Americans do not appreciate the health risks.

"They think that because it is smoking over water it is somehow just not going to harm them in any way," she told the BBC World Service.

However, for Connecticut student Erin Biel, the hookah means a chance to relax without having resort to alcohol, and the Yale University student says she can control her consumption.

One Connecticut hookah lounge, Beans and Leaves in Fairfield, sees college students and young people pouring in every weekend and on many week nights, according to an article in the Milford News.

They come to smoke but also to play cards and board games, listen to music, watch TV.

"We've seen a great rise in our state, and across other states, in hookah smoking in hookah lounges and they are targeted towards our young people," Senator Slossberg told the BBC.

She accepts many users only use the water pipe occasionally but points to the cigarette comparison - "like smoking five packs of cigarettes in one hour".

Her bill, approved for voting by the Connecticut General Assembly's public health committee in April, would build on Connecticut's current ban on smoking in public places such as restaurants.

It would stop any new hookah bar opening after 1 July while existing hookah bars would be allowed to continue operations until new health regulations come into effect on 1 July 2013.

For Ms Biel, the bill seems to have "almost come out of mid-air", unaccompanied by any public health awareness campaign.

She occasionally visits two hookah bars in New Haven, where Yale is located, but generally she smokes the hookah with her friends late at night in dorm rooms, as a way to relax and "spur conversation".

There is an attractive cultural element to the pipe, she points out: "We smoke it in our dorm rooms because we end up buying hookahs when we go abroad, so it's kind of something nice that we bring back from our travels too."

The strict teetotaller says she smokes the hookah "in a very self-regulated manner".

But the US government health warning is very clear: "Hookah smoking is not a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes."

Boston and Maine have already ended exemptions in indoor-smoking laws that allowed hookah bars to thrive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13619287

[rubato]

Simple economics is wiping out hookah bars faster than regulation ever could.

Two came and went at lightspeed locally.

The premise is too narrow to be successful.

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

However, for Connecticut student Erin Biel, the hookah means a chance to relax without having resort to alcohol,

.

There are a few young'uns (well more than a few) in my outpatient group and they talk of going to NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings and afterward going to a Hookah lounge for a smoke. Beats taking pills and/or heroin.

and the Yale University student says she can control her consumption

Famous last words from every smoker/addict/alcholic I have met.

[Long Run]

Never got the concept for the hookah. I'd give them a libertarian pass, or even a librarian pass, and let the fad die on its own.

[oldr_n_wsr]

We used to smoke pot from a hookah.

[Gob]

There's a Turkish cafe near my office that has hookahs (titter) for cafe users to use. I love the smell of the scented smoke, but know that using one would result in me taking up the evil weed again.

[The Hen]

Is there really? I would have thought our new laws of no smoking within 5 meters of a food establishment would have stopped that immediately.

[Gob]

Turkish Pide place in Woden Mall has them.

[The Hen]

Interesting. I am sure it shouldn't, unless it is in a DOSA (Designated Outdoor Smoking Area).

Here are our latest laws ...

Enclosed public places became smoke-free on 1 December 2006 with the removal of exemptions for pubs and clubs to have certain areas provided for smoking. An enclosed public place can be any public place, including business premises, a community centre, a place of worship or a shopping centre. Essentially a public place can be anywhere the public or a section of the public has access.

All outdoor eating and drinking areas across the ACT became smoke-free on 9 December, 2010.

An outdoor eating and drinking area is:
• a public place where tables and chairs are provided for customers to consume food purchased from an on-site service such as a restaurant, café, food van or take-away store; or
• all liquor licensed outdoor areas at venues across Canberra.

Certain liquor licensed venues such as pubs, clubs, taverns and bars may choose to designate part of their liquor licensed outdoor area as a designated outdoor smoking area (DOSA).

A DOSA is designed to be an area where people who wish to smoke may take their drink while they have a cigarette break before returning to their friends in non-smoking areas. They are separate to other non smoking outdoor areas and are subject to stringent rules such as no food or drink service and no eating.