Lisa Bernheim / Picture Editor / lb320306@ohiou.edu

James, smoking a hookah, Gabrielle, Michael, Nina and Dave (left to right) inside Pharao’s, which is exempt from the smoking ban because of its status as a tobacco retail store.

Although hookah users can still enjoy smoking at Pharao’s on Mill Street, health officials say they are subjecting themselves to more health problems than cigarette smokers.

Hookah and other tobacco users in Athens can smoke at Pharao’s, the only hookah bar still open in Athens after the smoking ban. Pharao’s is exempt because 80 percent or more of its business is in tobacco-based sales, Pharao’s employee Ryan Williams said. 

Smoking hookah at Pharao’s costs $10.65 per two people and $2 for every additional person for the use of one hookah and one session of tobacco.

The smoking ban went into effect Dec. 7, 2006, but enforcement of the law did not begin until May 3, said Ohio Department of Health spokesman Kristopher Weiss.

Retail tobacco stores can allow smoking in their business if the owners approve, said Lauren Borovicka, the tobacco prevention programs coordinator for the Athens City-County Health Department.

Athens County has received 37 complaints since enforcement began in May.  There have been a total of 14,209 complaints in Ohio and about 280,000 businesses are subject to the smoking ban, Weiss said.

The Athens City-County Health Department has received many questions about hookah use and the law, but no formal complaints about hookah have been made, Borovicka said.

Frequent hookah users encounter health hazards that are not commonly associated with smoking cigarettes.

Hookah users easily spread germs and infections by sharing a mouthpiece. There is also three times more nicotine in hookah smoke than in normal cigarettes, Borovicka said.

In a typical one-hour hookah session, a person inhales 100-200 times the volume of smoke that is inhaled with a single cigarette, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/hookahs.htm. Many people assume a hookah habit is healthier than smoking cigarettes. 

“Hookahs are a lot better for you than cigarettes because they have no chemicals.  When you smoke cigarettes you cough a lot because of all the chemicals in them,” said Amanda Vestal, a Hocking College freshman and Pharao’s customer.  

Health officials disagree, however.

“Hookahs are not safe. Hookah smoke contains carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar, arsenic, cobalt, chromium, lead and cadmium which are all substances that are known to cause cancer. We know that waterpipe smoke is similar to cigarettes in the amount of carbon monoxide it contains,” Borovicka said. 

Like cigarettes, waterpipe smoking has been associated with serious diseases including pulmonary disease and coronary disease, Borovicka said.