Hookah Guy

If researchers from the American University of Beirut (AUB) have their way, the narghile and all its accessories would have highly visible labels detailing the effects of smoking. This emerged at a conference on the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Durban, thanks to a group of Lebanese researchers. Assistant Research Professor Rima Nakkash, who with colleagues has established a stand in the hall where delegates eat, said that while cigarettes across the world had some form of label warning about the dangers of smoking, the much revered hubbly bubbly and its accessories had none. "It is a fallacy that smoking the narghile is a safer alternative to smoking. It has the same constituents as cigarettes and in some cases it is more dangerous," she said. Nakkash, who works for the AUB's Health Management and Policy Department, said that there were also concerns that the aluminium foil used in the narghile would give off lead.

A couple of months ago, Three Kings became Arabian Nights, a more upscale hookah lounge that's clearly gunning for the Zeeba crowd. Ladies and gentleman, a hookah bar fight has begun. In one corner, we have the scruffy upstart, hungry for victory. In the other, the undefeated champion. The only way to fairly gauge the two is to hit them both on the same night. And that is exactly what we did. Last Friday, my fiancee, Amie, a couple of friends and I bounced back and forth between both of South Baltimore's hookah bars. And, after a rocky little saga, we have a winner. . . . On our way home, we contemplated the evening spent at rival hookah bars. Arabian Nights needed more elbow room and better wall dressings. The shisha there cost more but tasted better. The fee for drinking alcohol inside better suited our party of four. And the service was decent. Zeeba Lounge had far better decor, slightly less of a shisha selection and a higher per-bottle fee for drinking alcohol inside. The service was good, but that $10 per person minimum is ludicrous. I now pronounce Arabian Nights the winner - of this round. There's no doubt, Arabian Nights has promise. Now, let's see if the city's newest hookah bar will give Zeeba Lounge a run for its money, or go up in smoke like its predecessors.

I work at a public health agency, and I consider myself a generally healthy person. I try to eat well and exercise, and I'm not a cigarette smoker. But throughout college and until recently, I would enjoy getting together with friends and splitting an apple- or mint-flavored hookah on the weekends. . . . However, smoking anything has health consequences. Hookahs are not safer than cigarettes. . . . d-hand smoke from cigarettes. Many reputable institutions have done studies on the health effects of hookah smoke. Their findings are alarming: * The American Academy of Periodontology states that water pipe smokers are five times more likely than nonsmokers to show signs of gum disease. * A 2005 World Health Organization study advisory states that a typical one-hour session of hookah smoking exposes the user to 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. . . . The popularity of hookahs is running against the anti-tobacco trend. The United States has more than 2,000 smoke-free laws. Water pipes are exempted from some of these laws and are seen as being a safer alternative to cigarettes. I encourage readers to consider the research before you and your friends head down to "Puff the Magic Dragon's Lounge" (not an actual place) next weekend. If you wouldn't smoke cigarettes, you shouldn't smoke a hookah.

Like smoke lingering in the air, the owner of a Tempe hookah lounge is still hanging around in the hope he can keep his business running. Anis Ben Harzallah goes before the City Council tonight, requesting a change of heart on allowing customers to takes pulls on water pipes at HB Tobacco, 53 E. Broadway Road. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. It's been two months since the council voted unanimously against allowing Harzallah to modify the business' use permit, which currently allows the sale of tobacco - but not the smoking of tobacco. He had admitted allowing smoking there after opening in early 2007. According to a legal document filed with the city by Harzallah's attorneys, patrons should be allowed to smoke hookah because the city had never before distinguished between tobacco retailers and lounges like HB Tobacco.