Hookah lounge manager concerned about public consultation on water pipe smoking

A hookah lounge manager is worried the city’s public consultation on smoking and vaping regulations is just smoke and mirrors.

City of Calgary officials announced Monday the city will, over the next three weeks, seek public opinion about if and how regulations should be strengthened, focusing their attention on the health risks associated with water pipe or hookah smoking.

General manager and part-owner of Mazaj Lounge and Restaurant Mireille Harris is anxious they won’t take her opinion seriously because they’ve painted it as a public health concern.

“It’s like if they went to Buffalo Wild Wings and said they didn’t want them to sell wings anymore and asked them how they felt about it,” said Harris, while sitting at a table at Mazaj on Tuesday.

Harris’ lounge would survive if the city moves to prohibit water pipe smoking because they serve alcohol, food and offer in-house games.

But Harris said that won’t be the case for other hookah bars.

“Other places that don’t serve alcohol for religious reasons because it is a cultural thing, they will have nothing to fall back on. Those who go out to smoke will have to stay home to smoke,” said Harris.

The City of Edmonton discussed ending the water pipe exemption from its smoking bylaws last year but decided to pause for further consultation with local shisha lounges.

Edmonton Coun. Jon Dziadyk said Tuesday that multicultural cosmopolitans such as Edmonton and Calgary shouldn’t remove the right to smoke shisha — the herbal mixture or tobacco blend smoked in a water pipe — at designated and regulated bars and lounges.

“These places are community hubs. . . . In a city of over a million people, with a lot of buzz and a great nightlife and all types of ethnic food and activities, there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a place to smoke water pipes if there’s a good ventilation unit,” said Dziadyk.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he’s interested in hearing what the community has to say about smoking and vaping regulations through the consultation.

“There really are two different things we’ve got to balance off here. The first is the need to safeguard public health and, in particular, safeguard the public health of those who work in the hookah bars. They have no option to be there,” Nenshi said Tuesday.

“On the other hand, I don’t really want to be, in this environment and this economy, penalizing small businesses.”

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra also wants to find an appropriate balance.

“The reason you’re not allowed to have cannabis lounges is because people who choose to consume cannabis by smoking it can smoke it, but the people who can work in those environments, and working minimum-wage jobs, don’t have the right to say, ‘No, I don’t want this in my lungs.’ There’s a similar concern about people who work in shisha bars,” Carra said Tuesday.

Ward 11 Coun. Jeromy Farkas said he supports safeguarding public health but he’s also concerned about unintended consequences that could make business more difficult in the city.

“I would lean toward letting people live their lives as they see fit. At this point, the risks are well known and I would prefer to let people decide for themselves,” said Farkas.

Calgarians can weigh in on the subject by visiting the city’s website engage.calgary.ca/smokingvaping.

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