Hookah: OH Hookah Debates

Ban threatens hookah spots

December 31, 2006
QUAN TRUONG

On a side street in Walnut Hills, a well-known Middle Eastern restaurant holds Andy Hajjar’s American dream.

For his customers, Andy’s Mediterranean Bar and Grill is a portal into Arabic traditions that have become the restaurant’s most marketable attractions – rhythmic music, belly dancers and hookahs.

These things have become the highlight of the popular restaurant on Nassau Street since it opened in 2001.

Five years later, Hajjar, a native of Lebanon, fears the state smoking ban will be the end of his American dream – at least in Ohio.

Restaurant owners continue to be confused about the smoking ban, especially those who run hookah-smoking establishments such as Andy’s. The ban took effect Dec. 7 but the state has agreed not to enforce it until specific rules go into effect.

Until then, Hajjar and owners of other hookah-smoking restaurants, such as Mejana on West 6th Street downtown, have kept the Middle Eastern water pipes on their menus.

“I’m still studying the law, but it’s very complicated,” Hajjar said. “You need an attorney to understand it.”

Still without clear answers, Hajjar waits to see if the hookahs will go up in smoke.

“Hookahs have been here since the restaurant opened. It was the main attraction for our customers,” he said. “You cannot take it away.”

According to the Ohio Department of Health, however, it can and should be taken away since the statewide smoking ban passed in November.

Hookahs, also known as shishas, narghiles or hubble-bubbles, have been a part of Middle Eastern tradition for centuries and in recent years have become popular in America.

Jon Allis, of Southgate, Ky., has been driving across the river for four years to enjoy the hookahs at Andy’s and would be disappointed if they’re removed.

“The whole atmosphere – the hookah adds to it,” he said. “It’s just fun. It’s very social.”

The water pipe is used to smoke fruit-flavored tobacco and operates by water-filtration, burning the tobacco through indirect heat from charcoal. As a result, the smoke inhaled tastes fruity and light, as opposed to cigarettes, which are inhaled through filters.

“It takes away the harshness, but that’s just perception,” said Jan Scaglione, a clinical toxicologist with the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center. “It still has a similar effect on the system. Fruity or not, they’re still getting the smoke – they just don’t realize it.”

Sami Awad, owner of Mejana, said he has already felt the impact of the ban. Once it is enforced, he estimates the ban will knock out 25 to 30 percent of his business.

“We have a lot of customers coming especially for the hookah – it’s our major item,” Awad said. “This affects my whole business.”

Awad opened Mejana three years ago, and the lease for his downtown location expires next July. Unless there’s change, he won’t be renewing it.

“I’ll move to Kentucky. We have a lot of customers and, just across the river, I hope I’ll be in good shape,” Awad said.

Health officials understand the struggle but say there’s no choice.

“I think traditions are great and I’m all for it,” Scaglione said.

“This is a part of their culture, but unfortunately, they’re providing their livelihood in a place that sees it as a health issue.”

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12/18/06

CLEVELAND: Owners of some Middle Eastern-style smoking bars are considering changes, including selling more tobacco products, in a bid to try to stay in business despite Ohio’s new smoking ban.

At the clubs, patrons smoke flavored tobacco through a tall, ornate water pipe, called a hookah or a shisha, which sits on the floor.

“Without the hookah, this is nothing special,” Wael Ayyad said about Kan Zaman, the Cleveland nightclub he owns. The club is popular with Cleveland State University students and Arabs and Persians.

Some hookah lounges are selling more tobacco products to qualify for an exemption in the law that applies to businesses that get at least 80 percent of their revenue from tobacco. Ayyad said he is considering building a wall to split his business into two: one that would serve food and drinks and the other for smoking.

The Cleveland health department has told Kan Zaman it can allow customers to continue smoking hookahs until it gets more guidance from the state. The law that prohibits smoking in most indoor public places went into effect earlier this month, but will not be enforced until regulations are finalized. Businesses have until the end of the month to file documents stating the meet the terms of the exemption.

The Shisha Lounge in Columbus is replacing the fruit juices and sandwiches it sells with cigarette vending machines to try to increase its tobacco revenue, employee Greg Bates said. It already makes about two-thirds of its revenue from tobacco, The Plain Dealer reported in its Monday edition.

Some researchers say dampening hookah pipes’ popularity will help prevent more people — particularly 18- to 25-year-olds — from smoking. A report by the World Health Organization has said one session smoking from a hookah pipe can be the equivalent of 100 cigarettes.

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Hookah lounges drop food items
Smoking ban orders changes if businesses want to offer smoking
November 25, 2006
Dean Narciso
At least three Columbus hookah lounges will remove healthful foods from their menus to comply with the statewide smoking ban, which takes effect Dec. 7.
Issue 5, which voters approved on Nov. 7, permits smoking in businesses where tobacco sales are at least 80 percent of gross revenues.
That means that the Shisha Lounge in the University District, and others that offer Middle Eastern-style water pipes and tobacco, will remove nutritional juices, fresh meats and sandwiches.
The three-year-old shop’s tobacco sales complied with Columbus’ smok- ing ban, which allowed smoking as long as tobacco sales accounted for at least 65 percent of revenues.
A cooler of Naked brand juices, which contain exotic fruits, vegetables and vitamin supplements, will be removed, said owner Aaron Johnston.
“We’re going to actually start selling more tobacco this way,” he said, “to make sure we’re over the new limit.”
“We don’t want to do it. But we will do it. We will comply.”
David Kushner lives near Shisha and visits regularly.
He enjoys the company of friends, and the variety of fare, including the juices.
“It’s a great substitute for a meal,” he said. “And if you’re smoking a lot, it’s good to get some food in you.
“It’s quite disappointing,” Kushner said of removing the juice cooler and other menu items. “It changes the atmosphere of the whole place. It’s less of a place where you can hang out.”
Closer to Downtown, at Gypsy Cafe, manager Mohamed Cheik already has removed turkey and roast beef from the menu.
The year-old hookah bar’s tobacco sales were hovering around 75 percent. By removing the popular wraps, subs and chicken, tobacco sales should easily top 80 percent, Cheik said.
“They come in here for the hookah experience, to smoke and then leave,” he said.
Health officials say the law was not intended to target any single business.
“We kind of focused on a law that would affect as many workers as possible,” said Jane Moreau, health-promotions director for the Columbus Health Department. “It really wasn’t designed to go after hookah bars.”
She said businesses can comply with the law as they see fit.
“It comes back to how they decided to react to this. If that’s what they’re picking out, it’s really their decision,” she said of the menu changes.
In Athens, Ohio, the former Shishah Cafe decided to eliminate tobacco, which accounted for about a third of its sales.
The business, opened nine months ago, will be renamed Salaam, said co-owner Hilarie Burhans.
“We were an island of calm in the swirling alcohol-fueled insanity that raged around us at night,” she said.
The pan-Arabian menu will focus on Turkish coffee, vegetarian fare and juices.
Moreau says hookah pipes are as dangerous as other tobacco products.
dnarciso@dispatch.com

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Hookah bars in jeopardy
Statewide smoking ban could extinguish popular hangouts
11/22/06, Kara Hardy
But this month’s passage of a statewide smoking ban could put the popular hookah bar out of business.
Read

2006-03-16
Jonathan Hunt

Local health department officials want to require warning labels at new hookah bars in town, and the request has inspired Athens City Council to reconsider a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, which it last contemplated in 2003.

“Hookah bars or cafes are opening all across the U.S., especially in college towns,” said Tanja Englberger at council’s Monday evening meeting. Englberger, the tobacco prevention coordinator for the Athens City-County Health Department, appeared before council with Health Commissioner Dr. James Gaskell.

The trend is uniquely attractive to young people because of the sweet flavor and reduced harshness of hookah smoke, said Englberger. This feeds a myth that it’s healthier that cigarettes, she said.

According to Englberger, a survey of Ohio University students found almost 10 percent of them have tried smoking from a hookah, but few knew about the extent of harmful health effects. Tar and heavy metals, along with nicotine, are present in the “shisha” mixtures used in the water pipes, she said, and the American Cancer Society is warning the public about the risks.

Council President Bill Bias appeared receptive, saying that, as a longtime nursing home director, “I have seen, firsthand, exactly what smoking does to people.” Bias reminded council that it had considered banning smoking in bars and restaurants three years ago before backing off.

“There was a time this council was fairly progressive,” said Bias. “No one wanted to pay the political price, frankly and bluntly.”

Bias said City Law Director Garry Hunter informed council that a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants could be easier, legally, to write into law than requiring hookah warning signs.

“A step further, like you mention, Bill, would be more helpful,” responded Gaskell.

Other council members, including Carol Patterson, D-at large, Bojinka Bishop, D-2nd Ward, Amy Flowers, D-at large, and Nancy Bain, D-3rd Ward, expressed some support for, at least, the warning-sign idea. No formal ordinance has been drafted yet for that change, or for a citywide smoking ban. Smoking is already banned in most public indoor space in the city, though bars and restaurants remain exempt.

“We couldn’t get five people in one spot,” said Bain on Wednesday, about how the wider initiative wavered in 2003. She said she expects the smoking-ban issue to come up before council again within a few weeks.

At the state level, anti-smoking advocates have presented a proposal to ban indoor smoking in public places to the Ohio Legislature. They have asked the lawmakers to refrain from acting on the issue in order to place it on the November statewide ballot.

Mark and Hilarie Burhans, who co-own the newly opened Shishah Cafe off Court Street with their son Ryland, said Wednesday they already have health warnings posted prominently at their business.

“I actually have more on the sign than (Englberger) asked me to put on,” said Hilarie Burhans, displaying separate warnings located at the front desk and on menus. The signs warn of “cancer and lung, heart and other diseases,” discourage secondhand smoke exposure to fetuses and children, and say “it is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.”

Their business wants to share this information in a voluntary and cooperative way, said Mark Burhans. “We want to put these things out there,” he said.

As an alternative to drinking at bars, or as a place for bar-hoppers to relax and sober up, Shishah Cafe may actually be offering a partial solution to health-related alcohol problems in Athens, suggested the Burhans.

“If a smoking ban happens, so be it,” said Hilarie. “We will continue as a restaurant.”

Ironically, the cafe’s owners don’t permit cigarette smoking in their establishment, and they said its customers receive less “tobacco delivery” than they would by smoking cigarettes in a smoky bar. The special tobacco preparations sold in a hookah cafe are composed largely of fruit and molasses, and the smoke doesn’t stay on your clothes, according to the couple. They encouraged concerned citizens to come check out the atmosphere for themselves.

Health officials, however, warn that hookah smoking can be as dangerous, or more dangerous, than cigarette smoking. A lung specialist on the Mayo Clinic Web site cited a recent World Health Organization (WHO) advisory stating that “a typical one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the user to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. Even after passing through the water, the tobacco smoke produced still contains high levels of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens)…”

One of the owners of Pharao’s, the other new hookah cafe in town, suggested Wednesday that city officials would be shooting themselves in the foot by passing restrictive legislation.

“If you can’t have a good time in Athens, tell me, what’s going to take you to Athens?” asked Adrienne Casagrande of Columbus. “What’s going to happen when the students stop coming to OU because it’s the number-two party school in the nation, because you can’t smoke there?”

Ohio’s economy, and that of Athens, can’t afford to ban smoking and lose the tax revenue gained from tobacco sales, argued Casagrande. “These people need to start reading the Wall Street Journal and see what bad condition they’re putting this state in,” she said, referring to a recent report that ranked Ohio fourth among states in tobacco tax receipts. “Your economy and your level of living down there is pitiful,” assessed Casagrande.

Though it hasn’t opened yet, her business will conform to whatever the law requires when it does, she added.

“If it’s the law, we’ll follow it,” she said. “Anything that we’re selling now, if it’s got a warning label, I’m not removing it.”

If the city decided to require hookah warning labels, she said, then that should apply to retail sales of water pipes as well.

In 2003, when City Council last considered a smoking ban, patrons, workers and owners from several uptown bars objected vehemently. Some of the opponents sent postcards to council members suggesting there would be political hell to pay if council passed such a ban.

One of those bar owners was Ric Wasserman, who reiterated his concerns about anti-smoking laws on Wednesday.

“There are a lot of unintended consequences in trying to control people’s behavior this way,” said Wasserman, who owns the Pigskin on Court Street. “We should be putting the effort into smoking cessation,” rather than “treating people like children who can’t make decisions for themselves,” he added.

Enforcing a ban would be hard, and it would create a fire risk as people sneaking smokes discard them in wooden bars, he said. Already, his business doesn’t allow smoking in the restaurant area until after 9 p.m., added Wasserman.

Some 11 states have passed smoking bans, along with hundreds of municipalities across the country, including Columbus, Toledo and Summit County.