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Some hookah bars are simply ignoring state's new no-smoking law

RALEIGH - Now that North Carolina's no-smoking law has taken effect, most bars and restaurants across the state have thrown away their ashtrays and herded smokers to outdoor patios.

But a few bars are openly flouting the new law, allowing people to puff away indoors as much as ever.

The ones doing so are hookah bars, and their owners argue that, because of a linguistic loophole in the law, the smoking ban doesn't apply to hookah smoking.

Hookahs are long pipes that are used to smoke flavored tobacco. Smokers heat a mixture of tobacco and flavoring, and then use a tube to draw the smoke through a bowl of water in order to cool it. Hookah smoking is popular among college students.

As of last year, North Carolina had about 20 hookah bars or lounges. Most serve alcohol.

State officials and legislators say that the state's no-smoking law, which took effect Jan. 2, applies to hookah bars, just as it applies to nearly every other bar in the state.

Some hookah bar owners and proponents of hookah smoking, however, are challenging the law by ignoring it. They point to a section of the law that defines "smoking" as "the use or possession of a lighted cigarette, lighted cigar, lighted pipe, or any other lighted tobacco product."

Hookah supporters say that, technically, the tobacco used in hookah smoking is never actually lit. It is heated by charcoal, but a small metal screen or piece of foil provides a physical barrier between the coals and the tobacco.

"Your typical modern hookah tobacco is tobacco mixed with molasses or honey -- depending on the brand -- glycerin, flavoring and sometimes a little dye. So it's very wet. If you tried to take a lighter to it, it just wouldn't work because it's too wet," said Adam Bliss, the owner of Hookah Bliss, a hookah bar in Chapel Hill.

An attorney for the N.C. Division of Public Health countered that hookahs would fall under the "lighted pipe" definition.

Hookah Bliss has remained open and is doing business as usual, with customers coming in to smoke hookah, drink a beer and socialize. Other hookah bars in Wilmington and Asheville are also defying the law.

The law, which narrowly passed the legislature last year, bans indoor smoking in virtually all bars and restaurants. It contains exemptions only for cigar bars -- if they meet certain criteria -- and certain types of nonprofit clubs.

Some legislators briefly tried to amend the law last year to add an exemption for hookah bars but the effort failed.

The intent of the law is to protect workers and members of the public from the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Anti-smoking advocates and hookah supporters disagree on whether the secondhand smoke emitted from smoking a hookah is as harmful as cigarette smoke.

Under the law, bars and restaurants that allow customers to smoke inside get written warnings for the first two offenses. After that, they can be fined $200 for each offense.

So far, Bliss said, he has not received any warnings or fines. But he said he fully expects to get fined -- at which point he hopes to take the issue to court.

Local health directors are responsible for enforcing the law and issuing warnings and fines. Enforcement will be driven mostly by complaints from the public.

Not all hookah sellers are participating in smoking civil disobedience.

Mooney's Mediterranean Cafe, in downtown Winston-Salem, has always sold hookahs at night, after it stopped serving food. Because of the new law, the cafe no longer allows hookah smoking indoors.

"We're just going to stick with following the law, and hopefully they'll change it," said Travis May, a hookah salesman and a cook at Mooney's.

At Mooney's, hookah sales make up only about 10 percent of revenue, so abiding by the law is not so difficult. But at places such as Hookah Bliss, hookah smoking is the essence of the business, and being forced to ban hookah smoking could result in its closing.

State Rep. Hugh Holliman, the chief sponsor of the smoking ban, said that it was never the legislature's intent to cripple hookah bars. He said that when he proposed the bill, he had never even heard of hookah smoking.

"It's not our intent to penalize hookah bars. We just don't want to start making exceptions that are adverse to healthy consequences," said Holliman, D-Davidson and the majority leader in the N.C. House.

Still, Holliman said, it was possible that the legislature would revisit the issue later this year to see if a solution could be found with regard to hookah smoking.

"I would be willing to take a look at that and see if we could work a compromise," he said.