Thursday night’s blaze in Kamala Mills may have been caused by a burning hookah coal setting the curtains and tarpaulin sheet covering 1 Above afire. Even as this is being investigated, anti-tobacco activists are calling for a ban on hookahs.
Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital and a vocal anti-tobacco activist, has called on Mumbaikars to boycott establishments that serve hookah. “While the government has failed to curb the mushrooming of the hookah culture, users are equally to blame. Hookah users are not only killing themselves but innocent people around them through fire hazard and second-hand smoke. I would urge all hookah users to this ‘killer apparatus” and boycott such places. Those not using hookah must protest and ensure that hookah is not served”
He said hookah bars continue to operate illegally despite legislative restrictions by obtaining licenses for running an eatery, and start serving hookahs as an accompaniment to target the youth.
Hookah illegal
There is still lack of clarity on laws on hookah. A civic official said restaurants should have a designated smoking area where food and drinks cannot be served. Some of these joints serve hookah in the smoking areas, but patrons have to carry their own tobacco products. The restaurant can serve only flavoured hookah. The ground reality, however, is different. At the ill-fated 1 Above in Kamala Mills, patrons were being served hookah at their tables.
Dr. P.C. Gupta, who heads the Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, a May 2017 government notification under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 200 or COTPA completely prohibits the use of hookah, even in smoking zones. “But there is absolutely no implementation of the law,” he said.
He said local authorities are lax, and the seriousness of the issues is lost. “Take fire safety for example. Had officers tasked with implementing these policies taken it seriously, those trapped in the Kamala Mills fire could have escaped.”
Dr. Chaturvedi said an hour of smoking hookah is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes. “Hookah smoke, just like tobacco smoke, contains more than 7,000 harmful chemicals and toxins and 69 carcinogens including nicotine, tar and other radioactive components.” Cigarette smoke consists of components like ammonia, arsenic, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, DDT, formaldehyde etc. which cause many health problems, the deadliest being cancer,” said Dr Chaturvedi adding that serving of hookah in bars and restaurants, that have very little fire safety standards and no separate fire exit, continues to be a grave safety concern.
