by Mike Gannon

Created on: June 28, 2009   Last Updated: July 06, 2009

As the war on tobacco rages on, it seems it's time to ask ourselves whether it's really fair or not. On one hand you have non-smokers saying that smokers are infringing on their freedom to breathe clean air, and on the other hand you have smokers saying that anti-smoking regulations are infringing on lifestyle. It's true that non-smokers have the right to breathe clean air if they wish, and their right has never been taken away.

The people that are truly having their rights infringed upon are business owners who are being told to run their business a certain way and what customers they must cater too. No one forces an individual to eat at a certain establishment, and if you don't like a restaurant that is filled with cigarette smoke, then you most certainly have the right to not patronize that establishment. On the same issue, business owners have the right to not offer smoking sections. After all, it is their business. If enough people stopped spending their money at an establishment because of their dislike of cigarette smoke, you can rest assured that business owner would make the necessary adjustments to stop the harm to his or her business.

Let's break this down though, we're talking about a hookah bar here. The primary purpose of a hookah bar is to congregate and smoke tobacco from a hookah. Throwing in some food to eat is an added bonus to it's patrons and an extra way to generate income.

If doctors are worried about second hand smoke being inhaled by non-smoking individuals who are socializing with people that are actually there to smoke from a hookah, haven't the doctors considered the possibility that the non-smokers know exactly where they are at? If the non-smokers disliked it so much, wouldn't they squash the idea of following their friends to a place pretty much designed for smoking?

Some arguments can be made that since hookah smoke is not as harsh as cigarette smoke that people might assume it is safer for them. Couple this with the fact that the tobacco used in a hookah has been sweetened with honey and it's hard to tell that the smoke you're inhaling is still bad for you. This ignorance could be an argument against the hookah bar since people might not know that they are hanging around a bunch of unhealthy smoke.

There is a simple answer to this problem, require the owner of a hookah lounge to post up information letting their patrons know that the tobacco, and the smoke produced from it, are still harmful to their health. Personally, I don't think it will change anything, because years of anti-tobacco propaganda has been shoved down our throats. Add a smidgen of common sense and it's not hard to tell that the tobacco in a hookah is still bad for you.

Before we start regulating everything in sight, let's do the right thing and use our heads for a second and you'll realize that it's silly to disallow hookah bars. We might as well take away any and all designated smoking areas because someone 250 yards away might catch a whiff of smoke and immediately drop dead.

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