Hookah lounge

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A hookah lounge (also called a shisha bar or den, especially in Britain and parts of Canada, or a hookah bar) is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavoured tobacco) from a communal hookah or from one placed at each table or a bar.

Contents

A hookah and a variety of tobacco products are on display in a Harvard Square store window in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. HarvardSquareHookah.jpg
A hookah and a variety of tobacco products are on display in a Harvard Square store window in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

In Western countries, shisha parlors are often owned and operated by people from the Arab world or the Indian Subcontinent where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition. Many shisha parlors incorporate such elements as Islamic decor and Arabic music or Indian music and have traditional decor, but some are simply bars without the eastern cultural elements. [1]

Characteristics

In the United States and Europe, shisha parlors are most popular in college towns and urban areas and are regarded by enthusiasts as a novel and chic way to socialize. Certain parlors offer modern hookahs with fruit bowls or other kinds of improvements over smoking hookah at home. [2] Some people of Middle Eastern or South Asian extraction consider them a continuation of their own cultural traditions. However, shisha parlors nowadays often distance themselves from the eastern cultures by offering hookah and alcohol without the cultural elements. These bars differ from other bars only in the fact that they offer hookah. [ citation needed ]

Usually a disposable mouthpiece is provided for each user for hygienic reasons. When alcohol is not sold, shisha parlors derive revenue from sales of coffee, tea, soft drinks and snack foods.[ citation needed ]

Some shisha parlors have well-equipped kitchens and are more akin to bistros. In the broadest sense, any restaurant or nightclub can be considered a shisha parlor or club if it offers patrons hookahs, shisha and a comfortable place to smoke. Some offer Middle Eastern cuisine menu items.

In the United States, due to several state tobacco control laws, many shisha bars have made the transition from offering tobacco shisha to herbal shisha, which is tobacco-free and can legally be smoked indoors in areas that have restrictions on tobacco smoking. Although herbal shisha does not contain tobacco or nicotine, when burned it does produce harmful chemicals, including heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause cancer and heart disease. These harmful chemicals are breathed in both by smokers and bystanders. [3]

Waterpipes outside a cafe in Aleppo, Syria. AleppoCafeWaterpipe.jpg
Waterpipes outside a café in Aleppo, Syria.

History

The origins of hookah are controversial, even though most agree that it started either in ancient Persia or the Indian subcontinent.[ citation needed ]

In Europe

Hookah smoking is common in many European [4] and other countries including:

In the United States

Mist Hookah Lounge in North Brunswick, New Jersey Hookah Lounge.jpg
Mist Hookah Lounge in North Brunswick, New Jersey

In the United States, establishments akin to shisha parlors first opened decades ago[ clarification needed ] in the immigrant quarters of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, California as coffee and tea houses.

Many shisha parlors in the United States have elements such as glass tables, plasma televisions, and oxygen bars. Most bars in the U.S. require patrons to be at least 21 years old to smoke shisha and 21 years old to purchase (exceptions are Utah, Arizona, Alabama, and New Jersey: 19 years old to smoke). [2] [6]

Over the recent years hookah has become increasingly popular for teens and young adults. As of 2014, one out of every five high school seniors in the U.S. had tried hookah, [7] and one in five 18-to-24-year-olds in the U.S. have smoked hookah in the past month. [8] It is not uncommon now to find hookah bars within short distance of college campuses and in the surrounding towns. [9] This younger generation is often the target for hookah business establishments. [10]

Laws about selling and use of hookah in the U.S. differ state by state. Most states do not allow minors (under age 18) to smoke hookah and some states ban hookah smoking in public places. [11] Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun to regulate hookah tobacco along with cigarettes and other types of tobacco. [12] There is concern that even if FDA places health warning labels on hookah packages, they may not be seen by people who smoke in hookah lounges, since the tobacco is usually taken out of the packages before it is served. [13]

In Asia

Smoking bans and exemptions

Because of the harm of passive smoking, many municipalities, especially in North America and Europe have enacted smoking bans in public places. Sometimes, however, businesses can obtain special permits allowing smoking within; these permits are typically available only for shisha bars, cigar bars, tobacconists, and similar establishments where smoking is the focus of activity. They are less frequently available for places in which alcohol or food is served.

In some cases, the ban is against tobacco smoking specifically. When this is the case, a shisha bar may remain in business by replacing traditional, tobacco-based shisha with a tobacco-free mu‘assel.

In order to remain open, many shisha bars cannot sell food or beverages. Approximately 90% of the cities that have put a ban on smoking in public places have exemptions for shisha bars. The cities with these kinds of exemptions, typically, have more dense populations. [15]

Health concerns

Hookah bars are a growing public health concern. Many hookah users do not understand the health risks that come along with the practice. Common incorrect beliefs include that shisha is not addictive and that the smoke contains fewer toxic chemicals and carcinogens. However, hookah smoke contains many of the same toxic chemicals found in cigarettes and it has not been shown to be safer. The tobacco contains nicotine and is addictive. The water does not filter out the carcinogens or other harmful chemicals are not filtered out. [16] Hookah users breathe in many harmful chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and aldehydes. Like cigarettes, breathing in these chemicals cause many health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, lung disease, periodontal disease, and low birth weight in babies whose mothers smoke it. [17] It has been shown that waterpipe tobacco contains 27 known or suspected carcinogens, as well as significant concentrations of toxicants thought to cause addiction, heart disease and lung disease. [18] [19] [20] Traditional charcoal-heated hookahs deliver nine to ten times more carbon monoxide than do standard cigarettes. [21] There have been multiple published reports of acute carbon monoxide poisoning caused by narghile (waterpipe tobacco/hookah). [22] Hookah smokers sometimes take in so much carbon monoxide, an odorless, poisonous gas, that they develop carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide poisoning causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, irritability, rapid fall in blood pressure, and chest pain, and often must be treated in hospital emergency departments. [23] This is sometimes known as “hookah sickness” [23] Hookah smoking can also be harmful to non-smokers since hookah releases many harmful substances (including particulate matter, nicotine, and carbon monoxide) in the air that are breathed in by anyone in the area. [17]

Due to the health concerns, many cities seek to create tougher restrictions for shisha bars, and some want them shut down altogether. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cigarette</span> Small roll of tobacco made to be smoked

A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or a herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is typically white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobacco smoking</span> Practice of burning tobacco and breathing the resulting smoke

Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or simply released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to have begun as early as 5000–3000 BC in Mesoamerica and South America. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century by European colonists, where it followed common trade routes. The practice encountered criticism from its first import into the Western world onwards but embedded itself in certain strata of a number of societies before becoming widespread upon the introduction of automated cigarette-rolling apparatus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hookah</span> Type of water pipe

A hookah, shisha, or waterpipe is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish and opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation.

Tar is the name for the resinous, combusted particulate matter made by the burning of tobacco and other plant material in the act of smoking. Tar is toxic and damages the smoker's lungs over time through various biochemical and mechanical processes. Tar also damages the mouth by rotting and blackening teeth, damaging gums, and desensitizing taste buds. Tar includes the majority of mutagenic and carcinogenic agents in tobacco smoke. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), for example, are genotoxic and epoxidative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health effects of tobacco</span> Circumstances, mechanisms, and factors of tobacco consumption on human health

Tobacco products, especially when smoked or used orally, have serious negative effects on human health. Smoking and smokeless tobacco use is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. As many as half of people who smoke tobacco or use it orally die from complications related to such use. It has been estimated that each year, in total about 6 million people die from tobacco-related causes, with 600,000 of these occurring in non-smokers due to secondhand smoke. It is further estimated to have caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smokeless tobacco</span> Tobacco product used by means other than smoking

Smokeless tobacco is a tobacco product that is used by means other than smoking. Their use involves chewing, sniffing, or placing the product between gum and the cheek or lip. Smokeless tobacco products are produced in various forms, such as chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, and dissolvable tobacco products. Smokeless tobacco is widely used in South Asia and this accounts for about 80% of global consumption. All smokeless tobacco products contain nicotine and are therefore highly addictive. Quitting smokeless tobacco use is as challenging as smoking cessation.

Herbal cigarettes are cigarettes that usually do not contain any tobacco or nicotine, instead being composed of a mixture of various herbs and/or other plant material. However, Chinese herbal cigarettes contain tobacco and nicotine with herbs added, unlike European and North American herbal cigarettes which have tobacco and nicotine omitted. Like herbal smokeless tobacco, they are often used as a substitute for standard tobacco products. Herbal cigarettes are often advertised as a smoking cessation aid. They are also used in acting scenes by performers who are non-smokers, or where anti-smoking legislation prohibits the use of tobacco in public spaces. Herbal cigarettes can carry carcinogens.

Tobacco harm reduction (THR) is a public health strategy to lower the health risks to individuals and wider society associated with using tobacco products. It is an example of the concept of harm reduction, a strategy for dealing with the use of drugs. Tobacco smoking is widely acknowledged as a leading cause of illness and death, and reducing smoking is vital to public health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic cigarette</span> Device that vaporizes a liquid nicotine solution for inhalation

An electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or vape is a device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of smoke, the user inhales vapor. As such, using an e-cigarette is often called "vaping". The atomizer is a heating element that vaporizes a liquid solution called e-liquid, which quickly cools into an aerosol of tiny droplets, vapor and air. The vapor mainly comprises propylene glycol and/or glycerin, usually with nicotine and flavoring. Its exact composition varies, and depends on several things including user behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking</span> Practice of inhaling a burnt substance for psychoactive effects

Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.

Dokha is a tobacco product, consisting of dried and finely shredded tobacco flakes mixed with herbs and spices. It originated in Iran during the 16th century. Unlike hookah tobacco, dokha is not cured with molasses. Users smoke the tobacco blend in small quantities using a pipe called a midwakh. Because the midwakh pipe is used almost exclusively for smoking dokha, the terms are often used interchangeably.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flavored tobacco</span> Tobacco product with added flavorings

Flavored tobacco products — tobacco products with added flavorings — include types of cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars, hookahs and hookah tobacco, various types of smokeless tobacco, and more recently electronic cigarettes. Flavored tobacco products are especially popular with youth and have therefore become targets of regulation in several countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventilated cigarette</span> Cigarette that delivers a lower concentration of chemicals than regular cigarettes

Ventilated cigarettes are considered to have a milder flavor than regular cigarettes. These cigarette brands may be listed as having lower levels of tar ("low-tar"), nicotine, or other chemicals as "inhaled" by a "smoking machine". However, the scientific evidence is that switching from regular to light or low-tar cigarettes does not reduce the health risks of smoking or lower the smoker's exposure to the nicotine, tar, and carcinogens present in cigarette smoke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muʽassel</span> Syrupy tobacco mixture used in hookahs

Muʽassel, or maassel, is a syrupy tobacco mix containing molasses, vegetable glycerol and various flavourings which is smoked in a hookah, a type of waterpipe. It is also known as "shisha".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking in Syria</span> Legality, popularity and history of smoking in Syria

Smoking in Syria is steadily increasing in popularity amongst the Syrian population, mainly in the forms of cigarettes or narghiles. In Syria, the General Organization of Tobacco manages the growth and exportation of tobacco products. Syrians collectively spend about $600 million per year on tobacco consumption. As of 2010, 20% of women and 60% of men smoke and 98% of the overall population is affected by passive smoking. Narghiles and cigarettes are the two main forms of tobacco consumption. Despite the assumption that smoking, specifically the narghile, is embedded in Syrian culture, this phenomenon has only recently become widespread. Health officials are currently working on smoking cessation programs and policies, to remove this idea that smoking in Syria is an essential part of the culture, to educate regarding health effects, and to prevent citizens from smoking in public places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking in Egypt</span> Overview of smoking in Egypt

The use of tobacco products in Egypt is widespread. It is estimated that approximately twenty percent of the population uses tobacco products daily. Cigarettes are the most common form of tobacco consumption in Egypt, with an estimated twenty billion cigarettes smoked annually in the country. After cigarettes, shisha water-pipes are the most common form of tobacco consumption.

The use of electronic cigarettes (vaping) carries health risks. The risk depends on the fluid and varies according to design and user behavior. In the United Kingdom, vaping is considered by some to be around 95% less harmful than tobacco after a controversial landmark review by Public Health England.

The scientific community in the United States and Europe are primarily concerned with the possible effect of electronic cigarette use on public health. There is concern among public health experts that e-cigarettes could renormalize smoking, weaken measures to control tobacco, and serve as a gateway for smoking among youth. The public health community is divided over whether to support e-cigarettes, because their safety and efficacy for quitting smoking is unclear. Many in the public health community acknowledge the potential for their quitting smoking and decreasing harm benefits, but there remains a concern over their long-term safety and potential for a new era of users to get addicted to nicotine and then tobacco. There is concern among tobacco control academics and advocates that prevalent universal vaping "will bring its own distinct but as yet unknown health risks in the same way tobacco smoking did, as a result of chronic exposure", among other things.

A heated tobacco product (HTP) is a tobacco product that heats the tobacco at a lower temperature than conventional cigarettes. These products contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive chemical. The heat generates an aerosol or smoke to be inhaled from the tobacco, which contains nicotine and other chemicals. HTPs may also contain additives not found in tobacco, including flavoring chemicals. HTPs generally heat tobacco to temperatures under 600 °C (1100 °F), a lower temperature than conventional cigarettes.

The composition of the emissions generated from heated tobacco products are generally lower than that found in cigarette smoke. This is due to the comparatively low temperatures, the filter systems, and physical design. The composition of what is produced is complex. The main toxicants found in the emissions of cigarette smoke are also found in the emissions of these products in varying concentrations. The aerosol generated contains levels of nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals that are comparable to regular cigarettes. The emissions contained 84% of the nicotine found in regular cigarettes.

References

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Further reading