Smoking a shisha pipe (nargile, hookah, or simply water pipe) in Canada seems to fall into a grey area in anti-smoking laws. In some regions, local by-laws have banned the practice. Last year the national capital , Ottawa, banned the water pipe at city parks, beaches or other municipal facilities. Other jurisdictions have followed suit.
Now Alberta is considering a province-wide ban on the hookah in restaurants to fall in line with laws on tobacco smoke.
Shisha establishments have circumvented anti-tobacco rules by saying the tobacco has been removed and shisha consists of flavoured herbs.
Alberta says it considers this mix to be “tobacco-like” and is exploring options to prohibit their use in the same locations where tobacco is prohibited.
In a 2012 report, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr James Talbot said someone smoking shisha in a typical 40 minute session smokes the equivalent of 100 cigarettes.
The report also notes that even shisha labelled as tobacco free, often does contain tobacco. The report notes that its not necessarily the nicotine that is carcinogenic, it’s the smoke.
Dr Talbot adds, “People should understand that even though the hookah pipes put (the smoke) through water, it’s no safer, and the carcinogens are still there. Smoke breathed directly into the lungs is going to have the same consequences in terms of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and for people in the restaurant whose asthma may be bad, it will be even worse.”
This is also supported by Suzanne Thibault, manager of Toronto Public Health’s chronic disease injury prevention department. She says, the idea that herbal shisha is safer than other forms of smoking is a wide misconception. Smoking tobacco-free shisha produces the same amount of carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and tar as tobacco shisha, according to research cited in a Toronto Public Health report.
Health organizations across the country have called for bans on public smoking of shisha, cited the above concerns as well as concerns about passing of communicable diseases as the mouthpiece is shared.
There are currently about 10 establishments offering shisha in Edmonton.
In 2011, two Vancouver hookah shop owners launched a constitutional challenge against a City of Vancouver bylaw that banned the burning of any substance indoors. The pair said the city needed to show that the health risks of smoking herbal hookah are real and that they outweigh constitutional protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case is still before the courts
Non-smokers Rights Assoc report on water pipe smoking
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