Meanwhile, a pulmonologist warned that users have a tendency to develop a dependency on frequent hookah smoking.
Hookah Photo: Source Flickr
Members of the Shisha Cafes and Restaurants Association have decided to approach the Karnataka High Court challenging the state government’s order banning the use, sale, or service of smoking hookah in Karnataka.
In their appeal for revoking the ban, the association members are to note that they had previous high court orders passed in their favour when such bans were enacted.
They asked: Has the state government grown above the high court?
Hookah cafe compared their business to the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. They noted that this was regulated by the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) Act.
They contended that the business of hookah would also fall under that Act’s purview and needed to be regulated similarly to tobacco products.
Shisha Cafe and Restaurants Association president Mohammed Danish told South First that they were roping in more hookah cafe owners across the state to file a petition in the high court appealing for the revocation of the ban imposed on such establishments throughout Karnataka.
“We are hopeful that the court will rule in our favour and we may continue our business,” Danish told South First.
He noted that there were around 900 hookah cafes in Karnataka, out of which around 500 were in Bengaluru alone.
As business was good, owners invested a lot of money into these cafes — be it interiors, increasing staff, or even the space for commercial activity.
Around 25,000 people are employed across all these Hookah joints throughout Karnakata — in roles ranging from general managers to stewards, said Danish.
There are 12,000 such people employed in Bengaluru alone, and these people are the breadwinners of their families, he added.
Danish claimed that hookah cafes were a growing trend even in tier-2 cities like Shivamogga and Mysuru, where business was thriving.
Amith, the owner of the Hookah parlour Coffeepot in the Banashankari area in Bengaluru, asked if the government had more authority than the high court.
The problems for hookah cafe owners in Bengaluru started in 2015-2016. Owners had their fair share of legal battles before the high court ruled in favour of them, asking them to follow the prescribed guidelines to do business.
All of a sudden, after an incident of a fire accident at one of the cafes in Southeast Bengaluru, the government has brought a blanket ban on hookah cafes throughout the state, which Amith said was not fair.
“Years ago, one bus at a parking yard off Mysore Road caught fire and in no time the fire spread to other buses. Did the government ban the buses?” he sought to know.
“If shisha is not there, we will get no customers. Customers come exclusively for shisha and relaxation. If they want just food or beverages, they will go to any pub, bar, or restaurant. Our business is legal and legitimate, and we play anywhere from ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 as GST to the government,” Srinivas, the owner of a hookah joint named Circle Wink in Muddinpalya in the Nagarbhavi area of Bengaluru told South First.
“If an organisation has conducted a study on how hookah smoke contains carbon monoxide, metals, and carcinogens, and poses serious health risks, then it should also disclose from where it took the samples, and such cafe should be penalised or shut down by the enforcement agencies,” said Amith.
“Hookah smoking could be compared to smoking cigarettes, and the high court ruled earlier that a trade licence was sufficient to deal with hookah, and that if a dedicated space like a smoking lounge is provided within a restaurant, then there were no legal issues running the business,” he explained.
This move comes after the Government of Karnataka – aimed at safeguarding public health, recently announced prohibition of the use, sale and service of Hookah in all public spaces including hotels, restaurants, bars, lounges, cafes, clubs, and other recreational establishments.
The hookah cafe ban action came after alarming data from the WHO Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2016-17 (GATS-2) was released recently.
It revealed that 22.8 percent of adults in Karnataka use tobacco, with 8.8 percent identified as smokers.
Notably, exposure to secondhand smoke in public places stands at 23.9 percent, while the mean age for initiating tobacco use is approximately 19 years.
The Karnataka government prohibition aligns with the actions of 10 other Indian states that have already banned hookah bars.
This measure is a reflection of the state’s commitment to promoting public health and curbing harmful practices, a release from the Health Department earlier stated.
The prohibition is reportedly grounded in extensive research indicating that even one hookah session can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes.
The resulting secondhand smoke presents a lethal cocktail of chemicals, endangering both smokers and non-smokers alike.
Dr Ravi Mehta, a senior pulmonologist at a reputed Bengaluru-based private hospital, told South First that there are two kinds of hookah — with and without tobacco.
“When it comes with tobacco, it’s double the risk as tobacco smoke is mixed with flavours and other ingredients that are added to it,” Mehta told South First.
“The hookah without tobacco also carries its own risk factors as these added flavours and ingredients are not very regulated, and this is as far as we know,” he explained.
“Hookah is not a home thing. It is usually done at cafes and joints where youths spend time socialising with friends,” said Mehta.
“This is similar to the vape culture in the United States, despite the fact that vape is known to cause lung injury,” he told South First.
“The users have a tendency to develop a dependency on frequent hookah smoking,” Mehta warned.
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