Tobacco News

In case you were wondering, tobacco is terrible for you. And in case you were wondering, hookah is tobacco.

If you’d chosen to forget that until now, don’t worry: I’d sublimated it for some time too. Hookah used to be, for me, a way of looking exotic, feeling Israeli and trying out low-risk smoking, and I went to a hookah bar about once a week for much of my sophomore year. I cooled down the coals, as it were, after that–only hitting the nargilah a few times a year–and haven’t smoked it at all since 2009.
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Hookah bars that serve flavored tobacco and are popular with the high school and college set may soon have a tougher time setting up shop in Chicago.

North Side Aldermen Pat O’Connor (40th) and Marge Laurino (39th) have had their fill of licensed smoking lounges that turn into “private little clubhouses for underage smoking and drinking.”
They want to require hookah bars to obtain so-called “special use permits” that need community approval and permits from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
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A new fad is threatening to undercut the hard-fought gains of laws that have placed strict limits on smoking in public, experts say.
The smoking of hookahs — waterpipes evocative of Cairo’s Kasbah or a Saharan oasis — is surging in popularity among young adults, research suggests. Read more

It’s after midnight inside a Dearborn café as Abu Tarek takes a puff off his hookah and exhales, curls of fruit-scented smoke wafting into the air. Read more

Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers have published the findings of a pilot study that shows hookah smoking is on the rise among white Americans of non-Arab descent.The team believes the hookah trend could hold dangerous health implications, including serving as a gateway to cigarette smoking and other drug use. Read more

In a dimly lit room, decorated in vibrant colors, with the sounds of relaxing music, the scene is set for the practice of one of the most deeply rooted Middle Eastern and Indian traditions: smoking hookah. This tradition involves smoking flavored tobacco, called shisha, from a tall, often elegantly decorated water pipe, filling the room with a sweet and fruity aroma. Read more

Group wants state’s 120 parlors exempted from smoke-free law.
With just days until Michigan’s smoking ban takes effect Saturday, hookah bar owners are pushing for a reprieve from a law they say will put them out of business and unfairly targets Arab-Americans. Read more

The main thoroughfares of this Detroit suburb, like those of many Michigan cities, aren’t as busy as they used to be. Thousands of jobs shed locally by the Ford Motor Co. have forced smaller businesses to shutter and left fewer customers for those that remain. Read more

This gilt-decorated 18th century vase sold for well above its £8,000-12,000 value at Bonhams.
A rare intact Mughal gilt-decorated glass hookah base from the first half of the 18th Century India created great excitement at Bonhams Islamic and Indian Sale at Bonhams, yesterday (April 15). Read more

With all the hype about possible new smoking rules on campus, I’ve decided to go rogue and start smoking as much as I possibly can. Nothing makes me feel more like a steam punk cowboy than huddling in the cold, sucking down burning vapors released by the smooth, chemically assisted tobacco inside each cigarette. Every corrosive, velvety drag feels like one more step towards the old west. Or hell. Read more