Connecticut Hookah Lounges Under Legislative Vote

Today, The General Assembly’s Planning Committee is voting on legislation to ban lounges opened after December 31, 2010. This bill requires the Department of Health to adopt regulations for lounges opened prior.

There are approximately 500 hookah lounges in the United States.

Hookah, also known as shisha, originated in Persia and India. Hookahs have been smoked for centuries. These water pipes are used to smoke flavored tobaccos. Some people believe that the filtration of the smoke through the water held in the bowl of the pipe makes this practice healthier than smoking cigarettes. This is false.

Water pipe smokers studied had high concentrations of carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar, and heavy metals. According to the Journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics, these concentrations were as high or higher than those of cigarette smokers. While cigarette smokers deliver toxins to their body regularly, hookah smokers sit for extended periods of time taking in 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.

Shisha is common in Egypt. My sister visited Egypt years ago and brought back her very own Shisha pipe after enjoying smoking it there. When we would talk on the phone, I would hear the deep inhales, water bubbling, and sometimes coughing exhales. When I inquired to the sounds, she talked about loving the various flavors of apple, peach, apricot, and especially how divine chocolate flavored tobacco was to smoke.

I remember the first time I came to visit after her first trip to Egypt. She pulled out this odd looking pipe with multiple hoses. She told me to give it a try after placing moist tobacco in the top with a burning coal. My sister said it was just like smoking a cigarette, but the flavor was much better and healthier for me. Within a couple puffs of the pipe, I was sick to my stomach and declined anything else.

While my sister swore she wasn’t addicted to her shisha smoking, I quickly noticed otherwise. After I returned home, I made my regular calls to my sister. When we talked on the phone I could hear the bubbling water, deep breaths in, and sometimes coughing breaths out. While my sister tried to assure me that shisha was healthier than cigarettes, a little research of my own proved otherwise.

As my sister has fought her own addiction to water-pipe tobacco, many in Connecticut are doing the same. With Bill 415 reaching the floor for vote, Connecticut is making a stand to regulate their only form on non-regulated tobacco. It will be interesting to see how the four or five hookah lounges in Connecticut change over the coming months should this bill pass.