Eateries may lose licence for serving hookah

NEW DELHI: Now, restaurants in Delhi can lose their licence for serving hookah.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday told the Delhi Police and the civic bodies to cancel licences of restaurants or eateries serving hookah on their premises.

“As per Section 4 of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, smoking of any tobacco product in a non-smoking zone is prohibited. A Union government notification in May clearly said no services are to be provided inside smoking zones, including hookahs,” said Dr S.K. Arora, state tobacco control officer.

Hookah is considered to be a service as it is on menu and is provided by the restaurants, unlike cigarettes that can be consumed in smoking zones of restaurants.

“The new notification makes serving hookah illegal. So the government does not need to institute a ban,” said Arora.

Another way most restaurants circumvent the hookah ban is by suggesting that the mix used for smoking is herbal. “However, we have raided eateries across the cities and all the samples that we tested contained significant amount of nicotine, clearly meaning that it is not herbal,” he said.

There are nearly 300 restaurants, eateries or clubs in Delhi that currently serve hookah.

Serving hookah is more harmful than cigarettes. “There are flavours available and it is easily accessible, making it attractive for the youth, who later move on to cigarettes and other addictive substances,” said Arora.

The police and the civic agencies have already been taking actions against eateries serving hookah, however, even before the minister’s direction.

“We take action against restaurants serving hookah and have even cancelled licences,” said AK Bansal, municipal health official at North Corporation.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says that hookah smoking can be more dangerous because the charcoal used to heat the hookah exposes people to high levels of carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals.