Public Hookah Smoking Ban for UK

[ghostofdavid]

[url="http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/10/uk.smoking.ban/index.html?eref=sitesearch"]http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/10...eref=sitesearch[/url]LONDON, England (CNN) -- Imagine denying a Brit a pint or banning a Swede from a sauna.Hard to contemplate. Yet many Middle Easterners in England are trying to come to terms with a new reality -- life without the shisha.The shisha, also known as a hookah, is a stand-up water pipe device often used to smoke flavored tobacco. It is one of the most favorite pastimes of Middle Easterners.But it will all go up in smoke when a public ban on smoking comes into effect in June 2007.Although people would still be able to enjoy the ancient habit at home, many feel it will never be the same."You are not meant to smoke the shisha by yourself," says Yasmin Ahmed, 23."It's a social thing. You come to a shisha cafe with a group of friends and enjoy the atmosphere," she adds, taking a drag from a long, multi-colored shisha pipe.Yasmin and her friend Nadia are regulars at Palms Palace, one of some 20 shisha cafes around Edgware Road, a popular piece of Arabia in central London.Like most shisha lovers, they are bewildered why the ban should include shisha smoking."It takes away people's choice. Shishas are not like cigarettes, people come here to specifically smoke the shisha and know what to expect. It's like banning a pub from selling alcohol. This is their business and this is what they sell," Nadia says.Shisha cafe owners are feeling helpless. Many are starting to reflect on the loss they would suffer once the ban comes into force. "It will break my business," says Qais Siza, owner of Palms Palace. "This is the only business I have, how would it survive?"Siza says the Edgware Road area would be dead without its vibrant and appealing shisha culture. "This area is famous for its shisha and Arabic food and that's what many tourists come here to enjoy," he says.The ban will not only affect shisha businesses across the country, it will seriously alter the social habits of the Middle Eastern community."It will have a huge cultural impact, the government should have consulted our community," says Ibrahim El-Nour, chief executive of the Edgware Road Association. A "Community for Shisha" group is campaigning to try and influence the legislation by lobbying the government in an attempt to save the custom."Shisha brings people together. Our community uses it as a means to socialize, discuss politics and exchange views," he says.Furthermore, El-Nour claims the government has not presented a clear case to justify the ban. "The government haven't conducted any meaningful scientific study on the effects of shisha smoke," he says.A spokesperson from the Department of Health says the government hopes the ban will encourage people to stop smoking."Smoking any tobacco product is harmful to your health. The Health Bill is a huge step forward for public health and will save thousands of lives by preventing smoking related diseases," the spokesperson said.

[DizzyGuy]

That's bull shit. It's gonna be weird to be walking around the streets of London and NOT see hookah-ers.

[ghostofdavid]

I agree. When will you Brits revolt? I'll help because I am a fan of a dying idea known as freedom.

[erik]

As I might have mentioned earlier, there is a chance that these kind of smoking bans don't apply to herbal shisha, like Soex or the new Hookah-Hookah Black Label.Once this is verified, maybe we could get the hookah-lounge culture back, leading to an increase in sales of herbal shisha, which then could lead to more research for better quality herbal shisha.

[ghostofdavid]

ErikDo you have English links do the Scandinavian hookahs? I am curious to see them. Thanks!

[MrGuy]

Dammit, trust them to ban it just as i get into it

[erik]

ghostofdavid, sorry nothing to see yet :)English pages with info is on my todo-list though.

[ZAP]

[img]smileys/smiley19.gif[/img]

[angemonkwj]

i love how the government gets involved and likes to tell us how to live our lives

[malakas]

Organize a hookah day with you and all your hookah loving friends. On the last day before the law goes into effect, everyone should be out on the streets smoking their lungs out as one last hurrah!

[Macho555]

Wow. Thats just really damn scary. The article is right, what next? Shutting down the pubs? Its particularly scary, because with the US Gov slowly shutting down public smoking, this could be the next step as well. Very sad indeed.

[MrGuy]

[quote name='malakas']Organize a hookah day with you and all your hookah loving friends. On the last day before the law goes into effect, everyone should be out on the streets smoking their lungs out as one last hurrah![/quote] will DEFINATELY be doing that, without a doubt! thanks for the idea, i'll speak to a few of the local bar owners when the apocalypse gets closer, i'm sure they'd lend us a few of their hookah's for a "hookah in the park" day out sort of thing!

[Vlax]

Damn health Nazis... Let the Brits choose there death in peace. And go back to eating your pesticide filled salads. Cause I know we are next in the U.S.*And steps down off of his soapbox*

[Sonthert]

Its like interdicting smoking opium or marijuana. Its only done when an underclass habit starts filtering upwards.

[EvansLight]

need to smoke on that last day so much to make london look like the movie the fog :Pbut yea this is gayer than little richards underpants

[malakas]

Make London look like cloud city damnit!I'll smoke up that day in your honor.

[PersianPride]

Hopefully there are loop holes that a clever middle-eastern brit will exploit. Like in Iran alcohol consumption and production was banned in 1979 except for Jews and Christians you required it for religious ceremonies. Ofcourse the exemption never refered specifically to just wine so today Iranian Christians and Jews produce, drink and export vodka, whisky, beer and even gin. Of course with the exception of the wine and vodka the rest are pretty poor quality. But you get my point a ban on any popular substance is never going to work. Let the rebellion begin.  

[cafedelmar]

They use Soex in the lounges here to avoid the problem, as far as I know.One question to everyone I have is about the effects of smoking shisha. Are we really that close minded that we believe smoking shisha has no effect and does no harm? It seems as if most people feel the water filters out everything that's bad and only sweet and tasty goodness enters your lungs, which is a very false notion. I think it's time that we all, myself included, come to the realization that with all the positives of hookah there are also negatives.

[PersianPride]

[quote name='cafedelmar']They use Soex in the lounges here to avoid the problem, as far as I know.  One question to everyone I have is about the effects of smoking shisha. Are we really that close minded that we believe smoking shisha has no effect and does no harm? It seems as if most people feel the water filters out everything that's bad and only sweet and tasty goodness enters your lungs, which is a very false notion. I think it's time that we all, myself included, come to the realization that with all the positives of hookah there are also negatives.[/quote] I accept that it is harmful that why I only do it once a week and try and fit in in regular cardiovascular exercise (i.e. a hard game of football.)But the issue here is and I don't want to sound like some pro-abortion feminist....don't we have a right to do what we want to our body with other consenting adults. Also that sounded slightly more sexual then i intended but yeah thats my point.

[cafedelmar]

Yes, fair enough. But the government's argument is that it is costing them and the taxpayers who don't choose to smoke just as much as it is costing you. The effects of smoking are costing the health care system millions, if not billions. There are many more reasons beyond this too. Here in Toronto, smoking in bars was banned a few years ago. The smokers were all mad, but everyone else loves it. I remember going to the Casino here and being boggled, seeing people allowed to smoke inside a public area. It's always more complicated than a simple yes or no issue. As hookah smokers, it's on us to do the research and find ways to make it work. Simply rebelling won't go very far

[MrGuy]

[quote name='cafedelmar']They use Soex in the lounges here to avoid the problem, as far as I know.  One question to everyone I have is about the effects of smoking shisha. Are we really that close minded that we believe smoking shisha has no effect and does no harm? It seems as if most people feel the water filters out everything that's bad and only sweet and tasty goodness enters your lungs, which is a very false notion. I think it's time that we all, myself included, come to the realization that with all the positives of hookah there are also negatives.[/quote] I have to disagree here. i dont think there is a single person on our forum that things smoking is harmless.Everyone knows that if you're inhaling something other than unpoluted air, then theres an extremely big chance its bad for you.i bet there will be a big march in london of all the smokers (cigs and shisha) on the last legal day... not that it will do anything, but i bet it will look good! lol

[The Pope]

Hookah bars are specifically for hookah smoking. It's not imposing your habits on a third party to smoke at a hookah lounge. Of course hookah is bad for you. So is eating fatty foods, running in shoes with bad ankle support, and not wearing sunscreen. The point is that it's none of the government's business. I won't get into the problem of socialized medicine, but I will say that if you're going to lament the cost to taxpayers that smokers are incurring, then you open up a huge can of worms - what other possibly harmful habits get to be regulated? It's a unequal application of the law and it fails to reference or establish a standard of regulation. Oh well, the UK has become one big nanny state anyway.

[cafedelmar]

Well Pope, I understand what you're saying and I'm not saying there aren't any holes in the law - there are obviously plenty. Personally, I don't like the idea behind it because people go to Hookah bars specifically just to smoke. Here, when they banned cigs in bars, it made sense because a large number of people were suffering from second hand smoke. But a hookah bar is like a cigar lounge, you go to smoke. I think that hookah smokers need a more organized and well researched response, rather than just shouting from way down there.But I still find that a large number of people believe that smoking shisha is harmless. Heck, I was of that mentality up until just recently. I was always told that the water would filter out all the harmful particles and what not, and that the smoke was clean.

[Onion]

they did that in Ontario but I think there's an easy way around that. All you have to do is make people get a membership when they walk in (hell, I dont even know if you have to charge them for membership). Because only members are aloud, its technically not a public venue anymore and thus you're aloud to smoke inside. This is also why you can smoke in restaurants and stores after they close (once they're closed, they're no longer public)

[chinamon]

[quote name='Onion']they did that in Ontario but I think there's an easy way around that. All you have to do is make people get a membership when they walk in (hell, I dont even know if you have to charge them for membership). Because only members are aloud, its technically not a public venue anymore and thus you're aloud to smoke inside. This is also why you can smoke in restaurants and stores after they close (once they're closed, they're no longer public)[/quote] private clubs were allowed to smoke but no any more.i work with quite a few european private clubs in toronto and they all got screwed with the new smoking laws.