The cafes are filled with perfumed smoke, hip music and the chatter and laughter of the young people who enjoy them.

Hookah pipes use charcoal to burn flavored tobacco; the smoke passes through water and through a hose from which the user inhales. The lounges are filled with comfortable couches and decorated in a chic way that makes reference to the pipe’s traditions in the Middle East.

Now, a study has been released that shows how this ritual has really caught on among today’s young people.

According to the study by University of Florida researchers, 11 percent of high school students and 4 percent of middle school students have tried smoking hookah.

“This is something that’s become popular in the last couple years,” said Tracey Barnett, medical sociologist and lead researcher on the study.

Some users think the water acts as a filter and makes hookah safer than smoking cigarettes.

“There’s no reason to think it’s any less harmful,” Barnett said. “There’s no safe way to use tobacco.”

Michael Dowie has been working at Hookah Hutt on University Avenue since May 2009. He’s 19, studying History at Santa Fe.

“I know it’s bad, but I still do it,” Dowie said. “I’m aware that it’s not healthy for you.”

He said a lot of young college students and seniors in high school come in to smoke hookah.

Florida’s minimum smoking age is 18.

The owner of Hookah Hutt has been running his shop in Gainesville for three years. He preferred not to be named out of concern for his family. He said that he checks the ID of anyone who looks close to underage.

“If you’re not 18, we can’t serve you,” he said.

He said that his lounge is a good place to socialize. “What makes hookahs so enjoyable is that you connect with many people,” he said.

He said he doesn’t try to hide the fact that smoking is unhealthy. “It’s just as bad as cigarettes … it’s not good for you,” he said.
By Andrew Ford, Gainesville

BOWLING GREEN – A senior at Bowling Green State University, Ryan Lasecki said he started smoking cigarettes only last semester.

He sees cigarettes – surgeon general’s warning or not – as stress reducers.

“Lately I’ve had some bad things happen in my life so I thought I’d give it a shot, and you know it does kind of help out a little,” the 21-year-old said while lighting up outside the Student Union. “I don’t smoke a ton. Some of my friends smoke a pack a day. I don’t smoke that much.”

Some 45 years after the surgeon general issued the landmark Report on Smoking and Health, which documented the health hazards from smoking, young adults continue to smoke at nearly the same rate as they did in 1984, a new report shows.

An analysis published this month by BGSU’s Center for Family and Demographic Research showed that 30 percent of young adults ages 18 to 29 in Ohio smoked in 1984. By 2008, that proportion had dropped only slightly, to 28 percent.

Conversely, 30 percent of adults 30 and older were smokers in 1984, but that rate dropped to 19 percent by 2008.

“Somebody’s getting the message,” remarked Heidi Lyons, an applied demographer with the center at BGSU.

She said she was floored to see the dramatic drop in smoking by older adults, but the almost level rate by younger adults.

“You’d like young adults to not even start smoking, since they’ve grown up with the message,” she said.

Ms. Lyons compiled the report with information from the U.S. Census, the 2008 Ohio Family and Health Survey, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Sur-veillance System. In addition to smoking, the report showed young adults were more likely than older adults to binge drink, less likely to get enough sleep, and less likely to always wear seat belts.

The report also said 30 percent of all young adults in Ohio are overweight, and 20 percent are obese. Along with that came health complications many would not expect to see in young adults, Ms. Lyons said.

Although 10 percent of all young adults have high blood pressure, 21 percent of obese young adults have high blood pressure. Obese young adults also are more likely to have diabetes.

“These [issues] are having significant ramifications in their lives,” she said. “It’s a little bit of a bummer. We need to get that message out there that they need to change their behaviors.”

Some students say they’ve heard the message but choose to ignore it.

One BGSU senior who wanted to be anonymous said she started smoking as a college freshman even though she’s known all her life it was unhealthy.

“Everything I was ever taught was smoking was awful,” she said. “I hate myself for liking it. I regret starting.”

It’s an expensive habit – more than $5 a pack – but a social one, she said.

“If you’re at a bar and you go outside to smoke, you meet people,” she said.

Freshman Michael Williams said he never considered smoking.

“For me it’s too scary to even attempt,” he said. “It’s hard to even breathe in when you walk by someone who smokes.”

Sophomore Derek Reiman said he never found smoking extremely appealing so he didn’t start.

“The young people I hung out with never smoked and I never had any money,” he said.

Like other students who do light up, Mr. Lasecki said he sees smoking as a short-term habit. He said he took a 2 1/2-week trip to Australia over the summer during which he didn’t smoke and didn’t have a problem.

“I don’t plan on doing it for terribly long,” he said.

Contact Jennifer Feehan
at jfeehan@theblade.com
or 419-724-6129.

One step to making North Dakota smoke-free is to get young people interested in the issue…

That’s what is going on at the Bismarck Tobacco Prevention Youth Summit.

Students from St. Mary’s and all Bismarck Public Schools hear how they can help reduce second hand smoke. Andy Berndt is an advocate for 100 percent smoke free worksites in Minnesota.

He says there’s a reason young people need to get involved in the discussion…

Andy Berndt “The young people of ND are the people who will most be impacted by smoke free laws – so getting them interested in the issue is important because those people will get the most benefit from this. They may be working in a place that has smoking making those changes now will affect them for the rest of their life.”

Berndt says it’s a myth that restaurants and bars will loose business by going smoke-free.

He says since the change in Minnesota 77% of all residents say it’s been a great idea.

North Dakota’s Comprehensive State Plan to Prevent and Reduce Tobacco Use sets a goal of having 100 percent of all public and work places smoke free by 2013.

In September 2008, Prime Minister Harper committed to taking action on tobacco marketing practices aimed at youth.

Our government is fulfilling this commitment by introducing Bill C-32 (An Act to amend the Tobacco Act) that would ban the use of fruit flavourings in little cigars, cigarettes, and blunt wraps, as well as those additives that taste like candy; address the resurgence of tobacco advertising in publications that can be viewed by children and youth; and require that little cigars and blunt wraps be sold in packages of at least 20.

A blunt wrap is a sheet or tube made of tobacco used to roll cigarette tobacco in similar to rolling paper. Like little cigars, blunt wraps are available in a wide range of flavours, including banana split, strawberry, chocolate and tropical punch, and are sold in single or small quantity “kiddy-packs” for as little as $1 dollar each.

Little cigars (also known as cigarillos) and blunt wraps are marketed today with fruit flavours (such as grape, cherry, peach, banana split and tropical punch) and additives (such as vitamins, sugar and others that taste like candy) that mask the harshness of the tobacco and therefore, appeal to children and youth.

Research from both American sources and the tobacco industry’s own internal documents released through court cases

indicates that the addition of fruit and candy flavours to tobacco products makes them more appealing to young and new users. The tobacco industry’s internal documents show that flavours and additives increase the “try factor.”

The growing trend of fruit and other flavours (such as grape, cherry, peach, banana split, tropical punch and chocolate) being added to little cigars and blunt wraps serves as an inducement to youth smoking. Sales of little cigars have jumped from 53 million units in 2001 to 403 million in 2007. They are the fastest growing tobacco product on the market and children and youth are smoking them. Blunt wraps are included in these amendments because removing certain flavours and packaging them in larger quantities makes them less attractive and accessible to youth. If blunt wraps were not included in the flavour ban along with minimum quantity provisions, children and youth could switch from using flavoured little cigars to using flavoured blunt wraps and adding their own tobacco.

The proposed amendments (introduced in the House of Commons May 26) to the Act would require that little cigars and blunt wraps meet the same requirements for minimum package quantities as cigarettes. This will put an end to the industry practice of selling these products in single or small quantity “kiddy-packs” that are affordable to youth. By requiring minimum package quantities of at least 20 units, little cigars and blunt wraps will be less affordable and accessible to young people.

Our government is continuing to deliver real results for Canadians with Bill C- 32. We recognize that closing existing loopholes in the Tobacco Act is a significant step in protecting our children from a deadly addiction to tobacco.


© Caledoncitizen

Movies which portray characters who smoke could soon be controlled by an automatic 18 rating while showing in Liverpool.
The main effect of films is to enroll new smokers from among young adults. Movies encourage them to experiment, and once they start experimenting with cigarettes other factors take hold. Movies create the expectation that smoking will turn out okay.

Liverpool Primary Care Trust (PCT) wants to prohibit young people from exposure to smoking actors because they can attract children in starting smoking.
The researchers analyzed the data on 5,300 participants, under 18 years old which smoke in Liverpool, half of whom were influenced by films.
If this legislation will be approved, then the council could urge 18 classifications under the Licensing Act 2003.
The city council decided to approve this new low, and people in the city have been urged to engage in a consultation, which starts in August.
Under the new plan, classic films which portray smoking characters would be unaffected and the policy would only be related new dismisses.
Nevertheless, films about historical figures and those which show a “clear and unambiguous description of the dangers of smoking” would be exempt.
Councilor Malcolm Kelly, chair of the patenting and gambling committee, said: “We were given a presentation earlier this year by the PCT in which they spoke about the high level of young people who smoke in Liverpool and that study showed that young people are more likely to smoke if they were influenced by seeing their favorite stars smoking in films. However, we want to get the views of a wide range of organizations and the public in general before we decide whether to go ahead with this idea.”
Government guidance said that the authorities should only cancel the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) if there are “very good local reasons”.
In its report to the council, Liverpool PCT said the city’s smoking influence was “excessively high” at 29%. The national level is 22%.
It added that research from several countries suggested that smoking in movies was “the most effective of the social influences which lead young people into smoking”.
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) spokeswoman Sue Clark told, “We have done our own consultation with the public and we specifically asked them about whether smoking in films should be a classification issue – we were told it shouldn’t”.