City considers snuffing out the puffing in hookah bars

Concerns about second-hand smoke outweigh other considerations: report

An exemption from city smoking bylaws that allowed people to light up in shisha bars could be on its way out.

A report to a city council committee says concerns about second-hand smoke outweigh other considerations.

“We have to look at abolishing shisha in public spaces to align it with the smoking bylaw,” said Coun. Scott McKeen on Thursday. “There are public health concerns or occupational health concerns about second-hand smoke … it creates carcinogens. For some reason shisha slipped through the cracks these past few years, and I think it’s time to make regulations line up, especially at a time when we’re dealing with smoking of cannabis.”

A shisha or hookah, narghile or water pipe is a way of smoking tobacco, which is sometimes mixed with fruit or molasses, through a bowl and hose or tube. The tube ends in a mouthpiece that the smoker uses to inhale the smoke from the substances burned.

The use of water pipes currently falls outside of the public places bylaw, which may need to be revisited by council, said a community and public services committee report released Thursday. The issue will be discussed at a meeting next Wednesday.

McKeen said he’ll put forth a motion Wednesday to bring a report or bylaw amendment to align the consumption of shisha with the smoking bylaw.

The report said the city identified 44 hookah bars, although the term ‘bar’ is used loosely because some of the venues allow the sale of alcohol while others don’t.

Apart from authorities including the liquor commission, police, fire department and Alberta Health Services finding illegal tobacco, also found were cockroaches, mice, fruit flies, cross contamination and generally unsanitary conditions in the establishments.

Police were called to 80 violence and disorder occurrences at these locations in 2017 and 20 in 2018, the report said.

Violence or disorder was reported in or around 30 of the 44 hookah locations.

About 43 per cent of the hookah locations that experienced violence or disorder over the time period are in downtown, 23 per cent in northwest, 17 per cent in southwest, 10 per cent in northeast, and seven per cent in west division.

Coun. Ben Henderson and McKeen agreed that past councils were probably a little bit skittish about banning shisha because they would be infringing on a cultural tradition.

“But with news that several countries in the Middle East have banned it,” McKeen said, “we can approach it with more confidence that, in fact, it’s just a public health issue, just like the smoking of tobacco or marijuana.”