Toronto council bans hookah smoking in city businesses

“The message today really is that we’re going to protect your health,” Councillor Joe Mihevc said after the vote. “This is a good news day for the City of Toronto.” As chair of the board of health, Mihevc had pushed for a ban.

In backing the recommendations, council blocked a motion made by dissenting Councillor Jim Karygiannis, who says he smokes in a hookah lounge once a month. He recommended adding a separate city licence for a “hookah lounge,” which would be allowed to use only non-tobacco products and serve only “coffee, tea and juices.”

Medical officer David McKeown told council that hookah smoking has been scientifically linked to chronic health problems, sets back efforts to discourage young people from taking up smoking and puts bystanders, including employees, at risk from poor air quality.

“One recent study estimated that for someone exposed to two hours of air in a hookah bar was equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes,” McKeown said.

For some 70 businesses that currently offer hookah pipes, Mihevc said, the ban requires changing the way they operate.

“I would say to them that you have to transform your business the same way many restaurants did,” he said. “We have heard so many stories of restaurants who thought that the world was going to end when they restricted tobacco smoking in the restaurants. They found that their business actually went up.”

Mayor John Tory said he has friends who invested in smoking rooms in restaurants and then had to adjust when there was an outright ban.

“I understand the sensitivity for business of having rules changed by governments,” but there is time for lounges to adjust, he said.

“We decided quite some time ago that we were not going to have smoking in restaurants, we were not going to have smoking in bars, we were not going to have smoking in offices, we were not going to have smoking in a lot of places — and this is smoking.”

“The debate about what people are smoking is, in a way, academic,” Tory said, adding the evidence that “anything you burn and inhale is not going to be good for your health.”

Asked how he squares the ban with the fact that every week the city issues liquor licences, given the societal and health harms of alcohol, Tory admitted: “I can’t really square it, to be honest ...” though he said the effect of second-hand smoke is one difference.

“But if you said to me there is somewhat of an inconsistency between trying to stop smoking in licensed places altogether, or places that have businesses, and not stop drinking, yes there is. If you asked me to explain that, I’m not sure I could.”

Lawyer Noel Gerry, who represents 14 of those businesses, had requested more time to study the potential financial impact of a ban on his clients before councillors made up their minds.

“My clients are disappointed in the result of the vote, and they are currently assessing their legal options,” he told the Star after the vote.

He said that 13 of the 14 businesses he represents derives the majority of their income from smoking hookah, and the ban would have devastating consequences for the owners and their families.

He called “outrageous” the argument that the impact will be similar to that of banning tobacco in restaurants.

“It’s just the most specious argument I’ve ever heard,” he said.