208850 Water pipe / hookah smoking trend: Do smokefree air laws apply?

Monday, November 9, 2009: 2:48 PM

Karen A. Blumenfeld, JD , Policy & Legal Resource Center, GASP - Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy, Summit, NJ
  
Water pipe, also known as hookah, smoking is on the rise, and public health officials are concerned about the health hazards. Highlights from the recent World Health Organization report on hookah smoking, and other studies reveal that youth and adults are unaware of the harmful and addictive nature of hookah smoking, secondhand hookah smoke is dangerous, and a shared hookah can increase the risk of transmitting viruses and other diseases. Hookah lounges are opening in college-friendly towns, and polls of college students reveal startling data, such as more students smoked tobacco from a hookah than had smoked cigarettes. Public health officials may be able to apply their communities' smokefree air laws, to restrict hookah smoking in public places.

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe water pipe (hookah) smoking, and identify the public health hazards of water pipe smoking to smokers, as well as nonsmokers exposed to the secondhand smoke. 2) Discuss its youth appeal and survey results. 3) Explain how smokefree air laws govern hookah smoking.

Keywords: Tobacco, Public Health Policy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am Executive Director of GASP, Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy, and Director of its Policy & Legal Resource Center. Provide technical assistance to public health sector, policymakers, advocates and the public-at-large, for almost twenty years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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