Tobacco.org

• Waterpipe Smoking on College Campuses May Contribute to Growing Public Health Proble 

More and more U.S. college students are smoking tobacco using waterpipes – or hookahs – and it’s becoming a growing public health issue, according to a new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher.

The findings offer important insight into the prevalence and perceptions related to waterpipe tobacco smokers and are reported in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The article is also featured in an editorial in the same issue.

“These results should serve as an alarm bell to anyone interested in public health in the United States. Preventing tobacco-caused death and disease means remaining alert to new forms of tobacco smoking and then understanding the health risks of these new forms and communicating these risks to public health workers, policy makers, and to smokers themselves,” said principal investigator Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., associate professor in the VCU Department of Psychology. . . .

According to Eissenberg, current and prospective waterpipe tobacco smokers should be made aware that waterpipe tobacco smoking is not as benign as they might think. Waterpipe and cigarette smoke contains some of the same toxins -- disease-causing tar and carbon monoxide, as well as dependence-producing nicotine. Additionally, the exposure to these toxins through waterpipe smoking may be greater due to longer periods of use.

Further, smokers take more and larger puffs with waterpipes, leading to inhalation of 100 times more smoke from a single waterpipe use episode relative to a single cigarette.

Through a cross-sectional study, approximately 744 students, mostly between the ages of 18 and 21, completed an Internet survey that included questions about demographics, tobacco use, risk perceptions and perceived social acceptability.

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Proposed tougher smoking laws have some Richardson businesses worried 

But in the next few months, this taste of Middle Eastern tradition could disappear as Richardson leaders consider a tough new smoking ordinance.

So, too, would people's ability to legally smoke a cigarette while sipping a beer at Main Street Liquid Co., shooting pool at Fox & Hound or knocking down pins at AMF Richardson Lanes.

City Council members will discuss the proposal again Monday night. The earliest a vote on the smoking ordinance could be held is May 12. If passed, it would go into effect 90 days later.

Last week, four of the seven council members said they wanted to cut the list of exempted businesses to just one: tobacco retailers.

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• 95 percent of 1,000 tons of tobacco illegaly obtained  

Selar, Smyrna, İmeks, and Şerbetli are four firms producing flavored nargile tobacco. The annual sales rate of these firms is about 24 tons. But "tömbeki," a special type of tobacco used in nargile, is only produced by Tekel. The four firms established during 2004-05 to supply flavored tobacco for the domestic market as a result of the recent spread of nargile smoking have tended to exports due to the hegemony of illegal tobacco penetrating the domestic market from abroad, and the increase in taxes. . . .

The Aegean city of İzmir is the center of nargile manufacturing. But Istanbul, too, played its part until a few years ago. Workshops in Kapalıçarşı (the Grand Bazaar) were working hard to supply nargiles to more than 200 souvenir shops in the bazaar. But 25 of about 40 workshops in Kapalıçarşı had to close down due cheap nargiles that were imported from China three years ago. . . .

The latest ban on smoking of tobacco products, including the nargile, was approved in Parliament on Jan. 3, 2008. Nargile cafes have been given an extension of one-an-a-half years to implement the ban.

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• Hookah bars in Paris fight smoking ban 

there remains an unexpected pocket of resistance: hookah bars.

The owner of one Paris hookah café says he has been on a hunger strike for two months to protest the ban on indoor smoking, which took effect Jan. 2. Other owners of "shisha bars," as the salons are known here, have simply chosen to break the law by continuing to offer customers tobacco in water pipes.

"We have no choice," said Badri Helou, president of the Hookah Professionals' Union. "If we don't offer what our customers used to come for, our companies will go bankrupt."

Hookah bars, which began springing up in France more than a decade ago, became increasingly popular across Europe, both among immigrants from Islamic countries and among the hip student crowd. Helou's union estimates that France had 800 hookah bars before the smoking ban, half of them in Paris or its suburbs, but that perhaps one-third have closed since the ban took effect.

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Blackburn Cafe Owner Faces New Smoking Ban Charge  

THE MANAGER of a Blackburn shisha cafe has been accused of flouting new anti-smoking laws for a second time.

Muhammed Jaber pleaded not guilty to failing to stop people smoking in the Sahara Cafe on Darwen Street on October 26 and obstructing an enforcement officer.

Last month Mr Jaber, 53, of Arncliffe Avenue, Accrington, pleaded not guilty to similar a charge relating to September 2007, claiming Blackburn with Darwen council was trying to make an example of him.

Council bosses said they "did not take any pleasure in launching court proceedings" but that they were "just doing our job".

The two cases will be heard in separate hearings at Blackburn magistrates court in June.

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Blackburn Cafe Owner Faces New Smoking Ban Charge  

THE MANAGER of a Blackburn Shisha cafe has been accused of flouting new anti-smoking laws for a second time.

Muhammed Jaber pleaded not guilty to failing to stop people smoking in the Sahara Cafe on Darwen Street on October 26 and obstructing an enforcement officer.

Last month Mr Jaber, 53, of Arncliffe Avenue, Accrington, pleaded not guilty to similar a charge relating to September 2007, claiming Blackburn with Darwen council was trying to make an example of him.

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Hookah cafes ignore smoking ban 

At least two hookah parlours are operating in the city despite new regulations banning smoking in all indoor public spaces and workplaces.

The regulations went into effect March 31. . . .

Nick Losito, Vancouver Coastal Health's regional director of health protection, which enforces provincial regulations, said both levels of government are behind the ban on smoking in indoor public facilities, which includes hookah cafes and cigar smoking rooms. He plans to meet with city staff next week to decide how to handle the hookah café problem.

"We have noted hookah smoking happening. The response we're getting is that it's a non-tobacco product, but we have no way of actually confirming that,"

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LETTER: Smoking ads must be rejected 

But how ironic that this same paper had a sticker on the front page advertising for Smoker's Choice, and inside a full-page ad inviting people to a dessert-flavored hookah tasting! Obviously these sweet tobacco "treats" are meant to lure young people and other nonsmokers to get "hookahed" into a deadly habit.

I'm sure The Daily Star was paid handsomely for this full-page ad. If you really believe, as you say in your editorial, that "Smoking is a disgusting and unhealthy habit," why don't you follow the example of the county and state fairs and refuse to take money that is tainted by this despicable and loathsome business?

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Cigars now the target of smoking ban in clubs  

Members of the city Board of Health has dropped their consideration of banning smoking in private clubs and instead have decided to seek a ban on cigar and so-called hookah bars in the Mill City.

The board came to that conclusion during its meeting last Wednesday, during which city lawyers were asked to decide whether the move to ban smoking in establishments that cater to smokers of cigars and hookahs -- glass water pipes that may be used to smoke flavored tobaccos -- would require a public hearing.

Lowell currently has no cigar or hookah bars.

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Hookah lounge owners find options limited with new smoking law 

Even under a new statewide smoking ban - and in a society where public tobacco use is increasingly restricted - hookah lounges are aberrations as legally allowable smoking establishments.

But they're now barred in Schaumburg from offering live entertainment such as the singers, dancers and disc jockeys that are often been part of their ambiance.

Hookah bars are allowed to exist, but they're banned from offering much of anything that might entice nonsmokers to go there.

Yet some proprietors and customers think that's heavy-handed and are seeking a compromise. One of Schaumburg's new establishments, Arabian Nights, was just turned down for an entertainment license and plans to appeal that at Tuesday's village board meeting.

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• EGYPT: Water pipe smoking a significant TB risk  

The smoking of the traditional `shisha' water pipe is increasingly emerging as a significant health risk in Egypt, due to air-borne tuberculosis (TB) transmission from pipe sharing and uncontrolled, manual preparation of the pipe.

Rania Siam, professor of microbiology at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said the most important risk factor for TB infection was close household contact with a TB case, but she said water pipe smoking (WPS) and the sharing of the pipe with someone with pulmonary TB led to a great risk of TB transmission, especially among young adolescents.

"`Shisha' [smoking] is Egyptian culture, where people smoke tobacco and inhale directly from this device. If I smoke `shisha', some bacteria may reside in it.

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Hookah use under fire 

The growing fad of hookah smoking among teens and college students has led state lawmakers to introduce bills to combat hookah tobacco use and to educate the public about its dangers.

The bills, sponsored by Sen. Buzz Thomas, D-Detroit, Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit, and Rep. Gino Polidori, DDearborn, and others, would create a public awareness campaign about dangers associated with the tobacco and water pipes.

Polidori said, "I remember when I used to smoke four packs (of cigarettes) a day. Hookah sessions can contain as much smoke as five packs in one sitting. Can you imagine what that does to your lungs?

"We need to make young adults aware of the hidden dangers involving the hookah tobacco and pipe.

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• Health officials warn of hookah-smoking hazard 

Cases of two Colorado State University students who might have contracted oral herpes from recent trips to a hookah bar are prompting health officials to remind people of the dangers of sharing saliva.

Anything from mononucleosis to an infectious cold sore can be passed through sharing soft drinks or passing around a mouthpiece at a hookah smoking session. "People shouldn't share spit," said Paul Poduska, infections control coordinator at Poudre Valley Hospital.

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Snuffed out 

Smoke and music do not mix.

Owners of a Schaumburg hookah lounge found that out last week when the Village Board rejected their application for an entertainment license they wanted so they could put on live music one night a week.

Village Trustee George Dunham, who led the opposition to Arabian Nights' license request, said it would be unfair to allow entertainment at hookah lounges and other tobacco shops that are exempt from Schaumburg's year-old smoking ban.

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Unrecognized Health Hazards of Smoking from a Hookah 

Smoking from a hookah, or waterpipe, is a new fad among college students, and it is widely perceived to be less harmful and addictive than smoking cigarettes. Yet a number of studies suggest that hookah smoking may be just as addictive and perhaps even more harmful because of the way people smoke while using a waterpipe, reports the March 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter.

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