The Connecticut House Public Health Committee last week approved a bill that would prohibit all hookah lounges across the state. The bill, approved by 19 to 9 vote, would cover the hookah bans and lounges, extending the smoking ban on them.

Hookah loung are based on the ancient Middle East tradition, where men visit similar venues, to communicate, drink tea and smoke the hookahs, large water pipes, containing flavored tobacco. Recently, several hookah lounges have opened their doors across the state, being not included in the list of public venues where indoor smoking is banned.

The bill supporters state it should be implemented since hookah lounges represent considerable risk for public health. They stated that studies show hookah smoking can trigger tuberculosis and other health complications, due to the increased content of such toxic substances as arsenic and lead However, the opponents argued the bill would harm the businesses and consequently, work places. They stated, visiting hookah lounges should be left upon the decision of individuals, and no governmental regulation is needed in the case. “The bill is yet another excessive regulation, telling the people how to live their lives. We have a $3.2 billion deficit we had to close, but we are spending time on talking about several hookah lounges,” said state Sen. Rob Kane, a Republican from Watertown.

Sen. Gayle Slossberg, public health committee vice-chairwoman stated the public health consequences of hookah smoking are significant. However, Republicans believe the major issue in the debate isn’t whether smoking water pipes is safe for health, but what the government has to do with it. They said that banning hookah lounges would result in people willing to smoke hookah going underground.

Rep. Kane mentioned that adult people have the constitutional right to decide whether to participate in certain activities others could consider dangerous, such as tobacco and alcohol consumption or parachute jumping. “People are free to decide on their own and that’s what makes our country so amazing,” he declared. “The government should not require us to take part in a certain activity or not to do that.”

Several legislators proposed to introduce measures to regulate existing hookah lounges, instead of entirely prohibiting all new ones as of July 1, 2011, under the bill. However Slossberg was against that, stating hookah smoking is very risky activity. “As there is no way to make it less dangerous, we have to ban it,” she emphasized. She also mentioned that Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have already prohibited hookah lounges.

Health advocates state there is no way to entirely clean the equipment used during communal hookah smoking to prevent disease spreading. Yet, hookah lounge owners state every patron gets a new mouthpiece, and that hookah smoking is an ancient tradition, used centuries before cigarettes were invented.

The bill has to be approved by the full House and Senate in order to be implemented.