http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/shisha.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2012/02/how-are-hookah-bars-still-legal.html http://tobacco.org/news/333627.html Are hookah bars legal? That's the real question you should be asking, as the law treats hookah smoking and cigarette smoking the same, as they are both tobacco products regulated by the same statutes. As cigarette smoking decreases, hookah use seems to be rising, particularly amongst the younger generations, possibly contributing to the perception that hookah bars are legal while cigarette smoking is not. This is actually not the case, as many hookah bars operate illegally. The reason for this is the state of smoking laws across the country. Smoking bans operate on a city, county and state level, prohibiting tobacco smoking in workplaces, with minor exceptions. In jurisdictions with such bans, hookah bars must fit into these exceptions in order to operate legally. . . . Now that you know the facts, keep in mind the following: Hookah bars, legal or not, pose the same risks as establishments where cigarette smoking is permitted. FindLaw blogs Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705399076/House-panel-forwards-ban-on-hookah-e-cigarettes.html?s_cid=rss-30 http://tobacco.org/news/333590.html Hookah pipes and e-cigarettes would be banned in public places under legislation a Utah House committee approved Thursday. HB245 sponsored by Rep. Bradley Last, R-Hurricane, proposed to amend the state's Indoor Clean Air Act to define the use of electronic cigarettes and hookah pipes as smoking, therefore prohibiting their use in public places. "I understand that there are strong feelings about this," Last told the House Government Operations Committee. "I think this is a very good place to start regulating, making sure we protect the public even though there are some things we don't know necessarily." Rep. Craig Frank, R-Cedar Hills, voted against the bill, saying he lacked data on the effects of e-cigarettes and hookah pipes and how the devices fit into the indoor clean air act. Deseret News romboy@desnews.com (Dennis Romboy) Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.miamistudent.net/mobile/news/community/hookah-is-still-smoking-poison-1.2767538 http://tobacco.org/news/333493.html However, hookah has the same affect on your lungs as smoking cigarettes, according to Director of the Miami University Student Health Center Dr. Gregory Calkins. "The water in the hookah does cool down the tobacco smoke, and the pipes might remove some tar from the smoke, but it is certainly as harmful as smoking cigarettes and cigars," Calkins said. The Oxford Hookah Lounge has taken steps to prevent disease from spreading; however, with a tobacco product, disease could be inevitable. How detrimental is hookah to a person's health? Riahi gave his own opinion. "My opinion is that it is not as bad as smoking a cigarette because smoking out of a hookah has less tar and less nicotine," Riahi said. Declining to give information specific to Hookah, Karen Vaught, store manager of Wildberry, said that all tobacco use is harmful to a person's health. The Miami Student Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thetigernews.com/news.php?aid=7444&sid=4 http://tobacco.org/news/333419.html Being a hookah owner, I was honestly more than a little skeptical about going to a hookah bar to smoke. I expected to be ripped off with the price and given a crappy setup to smoke on. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong during my visit to Friend’s Cafe. The food was reasonably priced, with a 10-percent discount given if you plan to smoke while you are there. On top of that, you can’t beat $2 mixed drinks (Mon. – Thurs., from 6-9 p.m.) which were pretty generous on the alcohol. . . . To finish out this week’s column, I would like to just take a moment and respond to a few questions that I got from readers last week about the health concerns related to smoking hookah. Obviously, smoking anything is not something that your doctor is going to recommend you do (unless of course you happen to live in California), but smoking hookah is very different than smoking other tobacco products like cigarettes. Shisha is just tobacco leaves and molasses ­— no rat poison, no fiberglass shards, no other hazardous chemicals that were originally designed to kill other organisms. Furthermore, no studies have positively linked hookah smoking and cancer. So while it isn’t going to make you healthier, smoking hookah is not nearly as deadly as other tobacco products. As I said last week, I will never claim to be an expert in this subject, but causal use causes less damage to one’s body than a night of heavy drinking. To top it off, hookah smoking isn’t addictive like cigarettes can be, so you can smoke as much or as little as you please. The Tiger tigerhookah@gmail.com (JOSHUA S. KELLY) Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.arabianbusiness.com/sheesha-smoking-fashionable-for-qatari-girls-study-443989.html http://tobacco.org/news/333418.html Sheesha smoking is becoming increasing fashionable amongst young Qatari women as they look for alternatives to smoking cigarettes, a new study has found. Smoking, traditionally considered culturally taboo and socially unacceptable by older women in the Gulf state, is becoming more socially acceptable amongst younger national women, according a poll on lifestyle and health choices by the University of Calgary-Qatar. “Participants also observed that even though smoking is a culturally taboo and socially unacceptable behaviour, the younger Qatari generation thinks differently,” the report said. “They noticed that water-pipe [sheesha] smoking is emerging as a fashionable mode of tobacco use in Qatar, especially among young girls. There is an assumption that for these individuals, smoking sheesha is more acceptable than smoking cigarettes,” it added. Poor diet choices coupled with lack of exercise and a highly sedentary lifestyle are all contributing to the rapidly growing rate of lifestyle diseases amongst GCC nationals. Arabian Business registration@arabianbusiness.com ( Claire Ferris-Lay ) Qatar Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.sunherald.com/2012/02/06/3734036/health-officials-fret-as-hookah.html http://tobacco.org/news/333372.html As more hookah lounges open, health officials said they are worried users do not fully understand the risks associated with the pastime. Cafe Hookah, which is set to open in College Park, Md., this month, will be the second hookah bar in the city. The cafe's owner, 29-year-old Abid Khan, said he chose to open the establishment because the "niche was available." "I think that it will be unique in the sense that - aside from making money - it's run by young people that actually care about the students," he said. Hookah tobacco contains many of the same harmful chemicals found in cigarettes and can cause similar long-term health effects, such as mouth cancer, lung cancer and cancer of the trachea, Shell said. "Hookahs are flavored and put in a nice setting when you are sitting and relaxing ... But that kind of socially attractive setting is really the vehicle for delivering a really potent dose of tobacco and carbon monoxide and other chemicals, too," Shell said. Biloxi Sun Herald Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://ekasearch01.eurekalert.org/e3/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/esoc-rua012512.php&charset=iso-8859-1&qt=%2Bsmoking%2C+EurekAlert&col=ev3rel&n=4&la=en http://tobacco.org/news/333337.html While the rapid improvement in socio-economic conditions is thought responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the Gulf states, deep-rooted cultural factors also play a part. "We're sitting on a time bomb," says Professor Hani Najm, Vice-President of the Saudi Heart Association, whose annual conference begins Friday 27 January. "We will see a lot of heart disease over the next 15 to 20 years. Already, services are saturated. We now have to direct our resources to the primary prevention of risk factors throughout the entire Middle East." . . . And now there is further evidence that the cultural heritage of the Middle East may present yet another growing risk factor in the region's battle against heart disease. The waterpipe - also know as the hookah or shisha - is now said to be used by up to 34% of Middle Eastern adolescents. Despite a perception that the risk of the waterpipe may be less than those of cigarettes, a recent report suggests that its "harmful effects are similar to those of cigarettes", and that the waterpipe may offer "a bridge" to cigarette smoking.(1) The greatest prevalence of use - with up to 34% reported - is currently among adolescents and women. A recent study from the Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), the region's largest, found that 38% of patients registered were cigarette smokers and 4.4% waterpipe smokers.(2) The study, which included 6,701 consecutive acute coronary patients in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, found that the waterpipe smokers were older than the cigarette smokers and more likely to be female. However, despite the relatively low rate of waterpipe smoking among the patients in this registry study, other studies report more widespread use throughout the region, and especially among the younger age groups. A study from 2004 found that 22% of men in two villages of Egypt reported current or past use of waterpipes, and the habit is increasingly evident even among student communities in the USA, Canada and Germany. EurekAlert press@escardio.org Mid-east Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thedailyworld.com/sections/news/local/measure-seeks-curb-%E2%80%9Croll-your-own%E2%80%9D-cigarette-movement.html http://tobacco.org/news/333329.html On Tuesday, the House Committee on Business & Financial Services officially approved legislation that would formally declare retail shops as manufacturers of cigarettes and also make them pay the same taxes as are levied on pre-packed cigarettes. The measure now heads to the House Ways & Means Committee. A similar measure is being considered in the Senate. Brown, who traveled to Olympia to testify against the measure, says that by declaring his little store a cigarette manufacturer he would have to undergo the same U.S. Food & Drug Administration standards as the large tobacco companies. “I don’t mind charging more in taxes but the manufacture aspect, that’s going to put us out of business,” Brown said. And on Thursday, despite never receiving a public hearing, the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection referred legislation that would out-right ban the use of the large “roll your own” cigarette machines to the Senate Ways & Means Committee. Brown said he’s just amazed at the open hostility he’s seeing to destroy his business. . . . “I’m not convinced that we need this bill,” said Blake, D-Aberdeen. “I think the business owners have made the case that they’re just selling tobacco and the tubes and letting customers combine them. And I’m not convinced that any change is needed. But, I have to say, there is bi-partisan support to push this through this session.” Rep. Steve Kirby, who chairs the House Business Committee, is the prime sponsor of the legislation. “Many of you will recall a couple of years back when we put that last dollar a pack on cigarettes, I stood on floor of the House opposed to that,” said Kirby, D-Tacoma. “I warned that people would find a way not to pay it. Here we are. Here we are. And we’ve got a problem now and we’ve got to weigh the revenue we’re losing by raising taxes against this entrepeneur spirit that many of us respect.” TK Bentler, with the Washington Association of Neighborhood Stores, testified that the state is losing $26.2 million in revenue a year by allowing the roll-your-own cigarette stores to remain open and not pay the same taxes. Aberdeen Daily World Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/child_tobacco_use_fears_1_4208440 http://tobacco.org/news/333301.html Children as young as 10 are putting themselves at risk of cancer and other health problems by chewing tobacco meant to be used in shisha pipes, a community leader claimed today. Salim Mulla, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, says he regularly sees young people chewing the fruit flavoured tobacco which is meant to be smoked through the pipes. And today he called for more education and a clampdown on the sale of the tobacco to underage youngsters. He said: “There is a lot of this happening right across the North West. “It is a major problem and there needs to be a clampdown by trading standards officers on the sale of this particular type of tobacco, particularly to underage people. “I would say these kids are 12 or 10. They are definitely under 16.” Mr Mulla, who is also a councillor in Blackburn, said he has seen youngsters buy other ingredients, such as sweets, from shops to mix the tobacco with. Lancashire Evening Post UK Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2012/02/03/tobacco-is-not-an-equal-opportunity-addictor-or-killer/ http://tobacco.org/news/333244.html Tobacco related disparities are no accident. Armed with targeted marketing strategies, cigarettes and a whole line of addictive OTPs (other tobacco products), the tobacco industry’s tactics intentionally cause a higher burden on some populations than on others. Smoking cigarettes leads to many health problems, including cancer, and many of us know one or more of these risks. But most people aren’t familiar with OTPs and the risks associated with using them. Packaged and flavored like candy, OTPs are noncigarette products that range from little cigars and Swisher Sweets to smokeless products like Orbs, which look like Tic Tacs. Cigarettes and OTPs are not marketed or taxed equally, resulting in many tobacco related disparities. . . . Tax equity, as we call it, would tax OTPs at the equivalent of $2.52 per cigarette pack. If Wisconsin taxed all tobacco products the same it would make it harder for youth and low-income residents to purchase these addictive products, and it would generate tax dollars to help balance the state budget and supplement the TPCP budget. Tobacco use goes beyond affecting the individual smokers. It affects communities in many ways, and some communities experience more adversity because of higher cigarette and OTP usage. As a community it is our responsibility to work towards reducing tobacco harm because tobacco companies certainly aren’t looking out for our health. Make a difference by writing to your legislatures today about how cigarettes and OTPs affect people in your community. Milwaukee Courier Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n4sl8 http://tobacco.org/news/333171.html At the European Society of Cardiology's meeting at the Saudi Heart Association's Annual Conference in Riyadh Professor Hani Najm suggested that water pipes are contributing to a time-bomb of heart disease in the Gulf States. BBC Online Saudi Arabia Mid-east Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/retail/shisha-will-stay-hot-in-uae-taxed-or-not http://tobacco.org/news/333167.html Summary Despite plans in the pipeline to introduce a tax on tobacco that could push up prices of cigarettes and tobacco products by about 30 per cent, many smokers say that would have little effect on their smoking habits. The National Newspaper rbundhun@thenational.ae Uae Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/02/02/ottawa-shisha-ban-push.html http://tobacco.org/news/333106.html With Ottawa Public Health officials calling for a ban on smoking in parks, beaches and outdoor patios, some health campaigners are pushing for shisha lounges to be added to the list. Ottawa boasts 19 shisha establishments where hookahs — the pipes used to smoke flavoured tobacco — are provided for public use. Pippa Beck is a policy analyst at the Non-Smokers' Rights Association and she cites a number of concerns with the flavoured tobacco, including unreliable packaging, a lack of public awareness about what is actually being inhaled and its growing popularity among young people. Beck said studies show water in a typical hookah pipe does not filter out carbon monoxide, small particles and other byproducts of combustion. CBC News Canada Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/9499632.Fears_over_youngsters_chewing_shisha_tobacco_in_Blackburn/ http://tobacco.org/news/333043.html YOUNGSTERS are putting their health at risk by chewing tobacco meant for shisha pipes, according to councillors. Coun Salim Mulla said he had seen youths chewing the tobacco, which comes in a variety of fruit flavours and is often brightly coloured. Dangers include a risk of posioning from colourings as well as permanent mouth sores and cancers. The Blackburn with Darwen Council Forum meeting on Thursday had already heard the local authority was taking a hard line on the sale of illicit tobacco. Echoing calls by Coun Roy Davies for a crackdown on people who buy tobacco for youngsters, Coun Mulla urged further action. Lancashire Evening Telegraph UK Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.usatoday.com/USCP/PNI/Valley%20&%20State/2012-01-29-PNI0129met-politics-fact-checkPNIBrd_ST_U.htm http://tobacco.org/news/332981.html WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT: Yee, who is running for state Senate, said smoking a hookah for an hour is as dangerous as smoking 100 or more cigarettes. She said, "One hour of hookah inhalation is equal to smoking 100 to 200 cigarettes in that hour." ANALYSIS: Yee is the sponsor of House Bill 2034, which would make it illegal for minors to possess a water pipe, also known as a hookah. It's already illegal for minors to smoke tobacco, but Yee's bill would impose a $100 fine or 30 hours of community service on any minor found with a hookah. . . . Studies by leading scientific health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, verify Yee's assertion that people smoking a hookah inhale far more smoke than they would smoking a cigarette. . . . Bottom line: Several reports confirm that during one hour of hookah smoking, a person can inhale 100 to 200 times as much smoke as is contained in a single cigarette. While some have criticized these studies, they are still the most current and reputable resource on the subject. USA Today letters@usatoday.com ( -- Alex Ferri) Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT