By ARFAT KHAN
Exploiting absence of regulations, the Hookah Bars are fast emerging everywhere in the City of Temples-Jammu. The trend is alarming as these self proclaimed dens of “recreation” fast emerging as most favourite spots where the future of the Nation- Teenagers swarmed to “relish” smoking in frenzy amidst presence of crowd gals. These new born dens of “recreation” substantially seen as source of burgeoning public health challenge for youth more especially in the backdrop of considerable surge in deaths due to non-communicable diseases in Union Territory of J&K. Generally, in India and especially J&K diseases of cerebrovascular, cardiovascular pulmonary and chronic obstructive pulmonary are the most common reason of deaths among adults. The ever increasing use of “flavoured tobacco free” hookah seems to further augmenting this graph of casualty among the youth. The content used in “flavoured” hookah is “Maasel”. It’s a kind of tobacco used in fancy styled hookah for smoking and is basically a Western concept. Incidentally, the saviours of Dogra culture and traditions, however, are silent over the recent surge in popularity of Hookah menace among youth which all set to robbed Jammu of its pride title –‘the city of temples’ and if this keep mushroomed at this speed then the day is not far away when this pride title will be replaced with city of ‘Hookah Bars’.
Global Youth Tobacco Survey attributes these “flavoured” hookah bars as the reason behind alarming rise in tobacco use among teenagers in India. There is unprecedented opening of Hookah Bars/Lounges/Cafe/Discos along roadside in Ragoora-Mahamaya road on Sidhara-Narwal National Highway-1 as well as in several places in city most prominent localities. Constructed in utter disregards to the engineering norms and lacks proper ventilation and required space, these pubs are offering so called “tobacco free flavoured” hookah smoking to teenagers of both genders sans any regulations. This sudden increase in number of hookah dens in Jammu is very similar to the trends first seen in notorious Hookah pubs of Chandigarh, Gurugram, South X Delhi and Banglore. Perhaps, the most disturbing fact about this alarming pub trend is the profound use of the prefix “tobacco free” with the “flavoured” hookah offered at these dens, which misleads the users in believing that smoking such hookah will not cause any harm or addiction. Results, this deceptive trade malice prompts youth of both genders especially teenagers to initiate and continue smoking so called “tobacco free” hookahs without realising the its health hazards.
Scientific evidences shows that concentration of many harmful substances like Polyaromatic, volatile aldehydes, hydrocarbons and CO in the smoke emitted from “flavoured tobacco free” hookah was equal to or greater than those from a tobacco laced stuffed hookah. This means except for nicotine, smoke released from tobacco free hookah has the similar toxicological profile as that of tobacco supporting hookah. Not only this, the empirical data collected from studies conducted in Eastern Mediterranean and Western Countries on “tobacco free” hookah users shows that it increases the odds of initiating cigarette smoking among non smokers. This is detrimental to well formulated tobacco controlled policy in India. This appears to be most menacing public health threat that India will transpire if this rampant popularity of hookah among youth remains unchecked. This is alarming in a nation where the graph of tobacco smokers shows up trend. Over the long period, this increase in smokers will indeed result in higher incidence of morbidity and mortality due to smoking related non-communicable diseases which eventually turn out to be economic burden on national coffers on account of health related expenditures.
Factually, hookah smoking might actually be more dangerous than cigarette. Single hookah is often shared by several individuals in a group thus exposing many people at a time. Moreover, the smoke from “flavoured” hookah contains additives which mask irritating effects of smoke on the upper respiratory system. Consequently, owing to mask character of contents used in hookah, the users inhale large amount of smoke deeper into their lungs which results in increasing amount of toxicant in users blood. Moreover, sharing the mouthpiece of hookah can help spread several infectious diseases especially the ongoing Coronavirus among its users. Least but not last, the high load of smoke released from hookahs in these disorganised pubs posed severe health risks to the nearby passive smokers.
Ironically, despite the availability of evidences about the health hazards of hookah smoking, there is no policy in the country to check its growing menace which is inflicting serious casualty on youth of the nation. It’s high time; the government in the Union Territory of J&K must frame an overarching policy to plug all the loopholes in the present system so as to thwart harm caused due to unregulated sale and consumption of hookah by youth in society especially teenagers. The government should not mislead by the greedy vultures and borrowed media fraternity who now awakened from deep slumber after the sealing of hookah bars operating on encroached state land and try to project these hookah dens as source of “recreation” and employment. Admittedly, addiction with passive health hazards can never be an instrument of recreation and relaxation for youth and offering it to teenagers must be seen as anti-social activities. In absence of any specific policy against “tobacco free flavoured” hookah, the functioning of such hookah bars remains largely unregulated-No restriction of entry of minors and breach of guidelines for indoor smoke.
On priority, the LG Manoj Sinha led government must regulate opening and functioning of hookah lounge/bars as in addition to “tobacco free flavoured” hookah, the youth allegedly can be exposed to other deadly addictions including drugs in these dens. There are disturbing reports that couple of beautiful drug peddlers who also acts as crowd managers around these Hookah bars besides indulging in immoral activities are selling narcotics and banned drugs to youth especially teenagers. In addition, the government needs to create a health education campaign directed at youth and their parents to increase their awareness about the adverse effects of “tobacco free flavoured” hookah smoking. The government should also made it mandatory for manufacturer to disclose contents and composition of so called “flavoured tobacco free” substances used in the hookah. For the time being, the government in UT of J&K without much delay clearly define the term “tobacco free flavoured” via viz its health hazards besides underlines the age bar of users. In addition, bold display of ‘No entry’ sign boards for teenagers, Monitoring opening and closing as per existing norms, bringing Hookah bars within the ambit of clean indoor policies, compulsory warning labels on every hookah instrument in bold format and inside the hookah bars, tax on “flavoured tobacco free” hookah product with price mentioned on it besides ensuring Fire safety norms and tax evasion under the GST regime. Least but not last, the administration needs to analyse why these dens of shames were either banned or ready to be shut down by the Govt in Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh etc.