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Hookah pipes to be prohibited in Toronto licensed establishments amid health concerns


November 4, 2015   by Canadian Underwriter


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Concerns about the health effects of hookahs, or waterpipes, prompted Toronto City Council this week to ban such devices, from establishments requiring a municipal licence, effective next April.

Toronto City Council will ban hookah pipes from licensed establishments, over concerns of health effects

“Hookah smoking is found to be associated with a number of short and long-term health effects including carbon monoxide poisoning, heart, lung and gum disease, low birth weight and oesophageal, gastric and lung cancers,” wrote Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown in a report last May to the city’s Board of Health. “Hookah use is often perceived as less harmful, less addictive and more socially acceptable than cigarette smoking. This may be due to the common misperception that the water in a hookah filters the nicotine and other harmful chemicals from the smoke.”

City Council voted this week to prohibit the use of hookah in establishments that are licensed, or required to be licensed, under its Municipal Code.

The city defines hookah as “a device, whether called a hookah or any other name, designed to heat or burn a substance to produce smoke intended to be inhaled by a user or users.”

The motion was made after the Board of Health recommended such as ban.

In his report last May, Dr. McKeown noted that Toronto Public Health presented findings from an air monitoring study, conducted by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU).

“Researchers found concerning levels of PM2.5 (fine air pollutant particles) and carbon monoxide (CO),” Dr. McKeown wrote in the report. “Overall, OTRU researchers concluded that staff and patrons in indoor hookah cafes are exposed to air pollution at levels that are considered harmful to human health. Outdoor hookah cafes showed less harmful levels than indoors, but air quality levels were still poor.”

The study was conducted in 2013 at 12 indoor and five outdoor hookah cafes in Toronto.

Toronto Public Health estimates at least 60 Toronto businesses offer hookah use on their premises.

“Currently, Toronto businesses can offer hookahs for use by their clients without a specific licence,” Dr. McKeown wrote in the staff report last May. “In October 2012, Municipal Licensing and Standards Division (MLS) recommended to the Licensing and Standards Committee that they develop a licensing regime for hookah businesses.”

McKeown noted that in 2006, the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act “prohibited the use of hookahs for smoking tobacco or non- tobacco products.”

Costa Rica, Israel, Turkey and Ukraine are jurisdictions that “have developed hookah-specific smoke-free laws,” Dr. McKeown wrote. “Several countries in the Middle East, where hookah use originated, have also prohibited hookah use in public places such as restaurants and lounges in the last decade.”


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