Tobacco and Herbal Waterpipes

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"Smoking a hookah is much like breathing the smoke from a smouldering coal fire.”(1)


Advocacy Campaign Timeline:    
  • November 17, 2014: The OCSH gave a deputation to the Ottawa Board of Health in support of a bylaw prohibiting the use of waterpipes inside and outside all public places and work places.
 
  • November 5, 2015: The OCSH issued a news release, urging the City of Ottawa to follow the lead of the City of Toronto by banning waterpipe smoking inside public places and workplaces.
 
  • December 15, 2015: The OCSH gave a deputation to the Ottawa Board of Health in support of "Let's Clear the Air 2.0: Consultation Plan".
 
  • January 19, 2016: The OCSH gave a deputation at Ottawa Public Health's Public Consultation on the Expansion of the Smoke-Free Bylaws.
     
  • June 20, 2016: The OCSH gave a deputation to the Ottawa Board of Health.
 
  • July 29, 2016: The OCSH submitted a letter to the Community and Protective Services Committee of Ottawa City Council. 
 
  • August 25, 2016: The OCSH gave a deputation to the Community and Protective Services Committee of Ottawa City Council.

  • August 31, 2016: Ottawa City Council passes a bylaw prohibiting the use of waterpipes inside public places and workplaces, on restaurant and bar patios, and in stalls at the Parkdale Market and the ByWard Market. The bylaw came into effect on December 1, 2016. The City of Ottawa issued a news release about the implementation of the waterpipe bylaws.


The Health Risks of Waterpipe Smoking:
  • Water pipe smoking (also known as hookah, nargile or shisha pipes) is a growing trend among Canadian youth. Smoking waterpipes with tobacco or smoking water pipes with fruit and candy-flavoured herbal products is just as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.(2) 
  • Nicotine exposure that can trigger an addiction and lead to cigarette smoking.(3)
  • Lung, oral, bladder, esophageal and stomach cancers, as well as heart and lung diseases.(4,5)
  • Bacterial or viral infections (e.g. tuberculosis, hepatitis, herpes, influenza, and oral disease) from sharing mouthpieces.(6) Hookah bars may not replace or sterilize mouthpieces. 
  • Exposure to high levels of toxins in second-hand smoke (e.g. nicotine, tar, heavy metals) from both the burning of tobacco in the water pipe and from the burning of charcoal to heat the water pipe.(7,8)
  • Carbon monoxide poisoning from the combustion of charcoal. The water in the hookah pipe does not filter out the toxic particulates in the smoke because carbon monoxide is poorly soluble in water.(9)
  • Low birth weight and respiratory distress in newborns whose mothers smoked.(10)
  • Although many hookah bars in Ottawa claim to sell or rent water pipes containing herbal products instead of tobacco, several hookah bars were charged with illegally selling tobacco, including to youth, thus contravening Ottawa’s smoke-free bylaws and the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. 

More Information on the Health Risks of Waterpipes:
REFERENCES:
1. Sivilotti, M., Riyad, B. “Inhaling smoke causes smoke inhalation: put that in your hookah pipe!” Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2012;14(1):3-4. http://www.cjem-online.ca/v14/n1/p3
2. U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Hookahs. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs/
3. Dr. Richard Hurt. “Hookah smoking. Is it safer than cigarettes?” Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hookah/AN01265
4. Maziak W, Ward KS, Afifi Soweir, RA, Eissenberg T. “Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic,” Tobacco Control 2004; 13:327-333. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/13/4/327.full
5. American Lung Association. “An Emerging Deadly Trend: Waterpipe Tobacco Use.” February 2007. http://www.lungusa2.org/embargo/slati/Trendalert_Waterpipes.pdf
6. Knishkowy, B., Amitai, Y. Water-Pipe (Narghile) Smoking: An Emerging Health Risk Behavior. Pediatrics. Vol. 116 No. 1 July 1, 2005. pp. e113-e11. -e11.    http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/1/e113.abstract 
7. Ibid.
8. Maziak W, Ward KS, Afifi Soweir, RA, Eissenberg T. “Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic,” Tobacco Control 2004; 13:327-333. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/13/4/327.full
9. Sivilotti, M., Riyad, B. “Inhaling smoke causes smoke inhalation: put that in your hookah pipe!” Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2012;14(1):3-4. http://www.cjem-online.ca/v14/n1/p3
10. Nuwayhid, I.A. et al. “Narghile (Hubble-Bubble) Smoking, Low Birth Weight, and Other Pregnancy Outcomes.” American Journal of Epidemiology. (1998). 148(4):375-383. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/148/4/375.abstract
All information at this site is protected by the Canadian laws of copyright. Unless permission is granted by the Ottawa Council on Smoking or Health, no person, group, or organization may copy, redistribute, reproduce or republish in any form, any material located on this web site.

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