Why are hookahs legal

In , according to New York City's health department , there were hookah "establishments" throughout the five boroughs, four times as many as there were in Local politicians took notice: That same year, the NYC Council bolstered an already-stringent indoor smoking policy by further cracking down on hookah lounges, barring any new ones from opening up and requiring existing ones to obtain a permit and prove that at least 50 percent of their sales came from smoking.

All NYC locations must also only serve non-tobacco shisha , meaning it's all flavor and no substance—smoking hookah in New York will not provide you with a nicotine rush. In Maryland's Baltimore County, hookah lounges have to close at midnight.

The debate around hookah exemptions has also brought up a question that often gets buried amid the stigma of smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the world : Can tobacco—and nicotine—be a form of leisure? Can it be part of an activity you simply do with your friends, like drinking? Still, none of this patchwork legislation among disparate cities and states throughout the country will matter much come May That's the date, etched in vapers' minds, when vape sellers have to submit their premarket tobacco applications to the Food and Drug Administration FDA —an expensive and arduous process they've claimed would shutter the entire industry and leave it in the hands of Big Tobacco—supported companies , like JUUL Labs.

Hookah companies must also submit that application, and are therefore at the whims of the same FDA approval. Their products could be stripped from the marketplace. Although there's a possibility, given some bureaucratic loopholes, that hookah manufacturers that produce flavored tobacco might be grandfathered in, essentially since they've been on the market much longer than vapes and e-cigarettes.

It is, however, far from a guarantee. It's not a replacement for cigarettes. It's its own thing. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Accessed August 18, Waterpipe tobacco smoking: An emerging health crisis in the United States. American Journal of Health Behavior. Toxicant content, physical properties and biological activity of waterpipe tobacco smoke and its tobacco-free alternatives.

Tobacco Control. Food and Chemical Toxicology. Flavored tobacco product use among middle and high school students--United States, Key Research Cobb, C.

Examines the prevalence and potential health risks of waterpipe tobacco smoking in the U. Aljarrah, K. Surveys hookah users in the San Diego, California, area to determine their perceptions of the health hazards of hookah smoking.

A majority of those surveyed Knishkowy, B. A study finding that the concentration of harmful chemicals in shisha tobacco is generally as high as or higher than the concentration of such chemicals in cigarette tobacco, and that hookah smokers are likely to confront the same health problems as cigarette smokers. Maziak, W. A study finding preliminary evidence linking hookah smoking to a variety of tobacco-related health problems such as heart disease and pregnancy complications, and concluding that more evidence is necessary to fully understand the spread of hookah use and its health implications.

El-Hakim Ibrahim, E. A study finding that hookah smoking may cause obstructive lung disease in smokers and predispose smokers to oral cancers. Sterling KL, et al. Health Education Research; , MMWR; , 64 38 Soneji S, et al. JAMA Pediatrics; , 2 Salloum RG, et al.

PCD; , E Griffiths RR, et al. J Pharmacol Exp Ther; , 2 Dangers of Hookah Smoking. Accessed March 4, World Health Organization. Eissenberg T, Shihadeh A. AJPM; , 37 6 Maziak W, et al. NTR; , 11 7 : Knishkowy B, Amitai Y.

Pediatrics; , e El-Zaatari ZM, et al. Health Effects Associated with Waterpipe Smoking.