AN outdoor smoking ban would be no trouble for the “hubble bubble” – the tobacco waterpipe that also goes by names such as shisha and hookah.
Quit Victoria says waterpipe tobacco smoking – common in the Middle East and Africa – is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
It says smoking tobacco in a waterpipe “has serious health effects for smokers and for others exposed to second-hand smoke”.
But the practice is exempted under the Tobacco Act because the main ingredient is not tobacco.
Seifeddine Seifeddine, owner of Altona’s Shishka Cafe, says he believes the shisha is safe even though he doesn’t partake.
“It’s dried fruit marinated with molasses,” he said.
“It doesn’t have any tar like cigarettes; it has zero tar. It doesn’t harm like cigarettes.
“I smoke cigarettes – you need time to smoke the shisha. I don’t have time.”
Mr Seifeddine said that if cigarette smoking was banned in alfresco dining areas, “I won’t have any people outside”.
“… No one will sit outside because people, they buy coffee because they want to have a cigarette, too. They want to enjoy it outside.
“And [beside] the main road, it doesn’t harm anyone.
“You’ve got the cars; they’ve got got more harm than cigarettes from the petrol. The diesel cars, you get more harm than cigarettes.”
