Legislation passed by the House of Representatives to ban flavored electronic cigarettes would outlaw the flavored tobaccos used in hookah pipes.
The bill, the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act authored by Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey that was approved last week, would ban flavored tobacco, which members of Congress say attracts teenagers to use nicotine.
In doing so, it would outlaw flavored tobacco used in hookah pipes, according to former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore.
“The real push in the bill is to get rid of flavors and menthol in all types of tobacco that is specifically designed for and or appeals to young people,” Moore told the Washington Examiner. “Hookah has grown up around college towns, and more and more young people have gotten in to it, especially the flavors and aromas.”
In 1994, Moore led several state attorneys general in a lawsuit against 13 tobacco companies, arguing that they must reimburse states for treating people with smoking-related illnesses. They reached a settlement worth about $246 billion.
E-cigarettes and vaping have become more popular than cigarettes among teens, though, and Pallone’s bill aims to crack down on manufacturers for creating fruit- and candy-flavored vaping liquids. It has received bipartisan support in Congress as well as with anti-smoking groups, but the U.S. Hookah Community Alliance, a new group that advocates for cafes and businesses that sell hookah formed in response to federal and state legislation affecting the tobacco products, said the bill was discriminatory against cultures that use it.
“Hookah has been flavored for centuries — just one of the many facts about hookah the bill’s lead sponsor Pallone didn’t bother to learn before trying to ban this important part of our culture,” said Arnie Abramyan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Hookah Community Alliance.
The tobacco used in hookah pipes, which is heated with charcoal and passes through a basin of water at the bottom of the pipe, is almost always fruit- or candy-flavored. However, smoking hookah is not safer than smoking other types of tobacco. It contains many of the same carcinogens found in cigarettes, and heated charcoal leads to high levels of carbon monoxide, according to the World Health Organization.
Pallone’s bill passed Feb. 28 by a vote of 213 to 195. The bill’s authors’ offices did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
