Hookah lounge owners oppose city-wide ban

Centretown shisha café owners are expressing frustration over city council’s decision to ban smoking hookah water pipes in public spaces, largely for health reasons.

The shisha bylaw is expected to start Dec. 1, 2016, but will not be enforced until April 3, 2017.

It’s a decision that will mean bankruptcy for their businesses, said Vibe Bistro and Lounge owner Sam Jawani, who came from Iran 10 years ago to start his shisha business in Ottawa.

“I’ve been working in this country for 10 years,” Jawani said. “I’ve brought money from back home (and) I worked everyday to invest in this shisha shop. I’m going to lose all that in one night.”

A hookah is a smoking device that comes in the form of a water pipe. It’s used to smoke sweetened or flavoured tobacco, but also can be used for smoking non-tobacco products as well, such as herbs.

City council sees smoking hookah water pipes in public places as a health issue, according to Krista Oswald of Ottawa Public Health’s Tobacco Control and Prevention Team.

Herbal water pipes, even without tobacco, contain toxins such as carbon monoxide, heavy metals and tar that can cause cancer and heart disease, she said.

“Smoke is by far a lot more dangerous to your health,” Oswald said. “There’s no safe level of second-hand smoke.”

Oswald added that banning shisha in public spaces will ultimately protect more vulnerable populations in Ottawa.

“Children have a tendency to breathe faster,” she said. “They’re inhaling more of this smoke into their lungs. It’s very detrimental to pregnant women and anyone with a serious heart condition.

“You want to protect the vulnerable population. All the population.”

Provinces such as Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have already prohibited the use of water pipes in public.

City councillors largely agreed that smoking shisha and second-hand smoke posed health concerns to the public.

“Fundamentally, what we’re talking about is smoking with a different name, with the risks being the same or similar,” Coun. David Chernushenko was quoted saying in Metro. “The device to me becomes irrelevant.”

Hookah smokers in the city are skeptical towards the bylaw, despite already knowing the effects hookah has on the body.

Ryan MacAleese, a 22-year-old who has been smoking hookah for two years and who also believes that hookah has negative health effects on your body, is against the idea of a citywide ban in public spaces.

“I don’t understand why you would target a demographic of smokers that go to establishments specifically to smoke,” MacAleese said.

“The clientele that walk into a hookah lounge café know exactly why they are walking in and what to expect.”

Jawani said he feels the proposed ban is infringing on his cultural practices. “It’s kind of really disrespectful for the other nationality. When we (Canadians) believe in multicultural people, you have to be respecting the other peoples’ tradition,” he said.

Hookah cafés are a traditional social space in Middle Eastern culture that are much safer and healthier than regular bars, according to Jawani.

Like MacAleese, he believes customers come into hookah bars with expectations of what they are smoking. “I don’t like to go to bars,” he said. “I don’t want to go clubbing. I want to go somewhere with my friends to chill. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everywhere is alcohol and they know alcohol isn’t good for you too.”

He believes that taking away smoking hookah pipes in public spaces will not only threaten his livelihood, but also his culture.

“I’m not scared, but now I don’t believe I’m a citizen,” said Jawani.

Despite objections voiced by lounge owners, others have raised questions about the way hookah smoking is traditionally practised in the Middle East.

Farhang Rajaee grew up in Iran before becoming a professor of humanities and political science at Carleton University.

He said the lounges in Ottawa that specialize in hookah smoking are North Americanized.

Rajaee explained that coffee houses in Iran will offer a hookah to a customer if they ask for it, but that there are no specialized clubs where people engage in mass hookah smoking like they do in Ottawa.

“When I was growing up —you’re talking 40-50 years ago — it was only common among old people or those who were addicted…I don’t know what has happened. I guess in the past 10-15 years it has become a bit of a fad and fashion amongst the youth,” he said.