Los Angeles considers shuttering celebrity-favorite hookah lounges as part of proposed ban on flavored tobacco in desperate bid to curb teen nicotine addiction

• Los Angeles City Council will today discuss a proposed ban on flavored tobacco
• The City Attorney recommends opting for the most stringent ban, with no exceptions
• That would outlaw hookah lounges, favorites among celebrities such as Drake, Bella Hadid, Charlie Hunnam, and Shaquille O'Neal

Celebrity favorite hookah lounges in Los Angeles are threatened to close as the city considers banning flavored tobacco. 

The ban, to be discussed by the city council's Health Committee hearing today, is a bid to curb tobacco use among teenagers, as national data show rising rates of teens vaping, particularly opting for flavored e-cigarettes. 

A collateral effect of the ban will mean all the hookah lounges in Los Angeles, favorites of celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, Drake, James Harden, and Miley Cyrus, will be forced to shutter.

The city is mulling six variations on a ban, from a total ban to one with exemptions, but the City Attorney Michael N Feuer recommends the strictest.

Hookah lounge owners are outraged.   

Arnie Abramyan, chair of a campaign group representing LA's hookah lounges, said: 'Hookah is a social ritual that is an ancient tradition for many minority communities which has become popular in LA due to the growing diversity of our population. 

'It is nothing like cigarettes and vapes.' 

Abramyan pointed the low rate of young people using hookah. CDC data released today showed that just 3.4 percent of teens use hookah, compared to a third of teens who vape, 7.6 percent who use cigars, and 5.8 percent who use cigarettes.

'There are good reasons for hookah’s lack of appeal to minors,' Abramyan said. 

'It can only be smoked through a large water pipe which cannot be concealed or carried around, which takes time and patience to prepare and about an hour to smoke. 

'Hookah is a social occasion, not a quick fix nicotine hit like a cigarette or vape.'  

Hookah lounges use flavored tobacco, known as shisha, with options such as apple, cherry or mint. 

A tradition of Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Indian, Turkish and African cultures, it is smoked through a large water pipe, usually in groups. 

Each pipe contains about 15-20 percent tobacco. 

LA's proposed flavored tobacco ban comes months after the California Senate rowed back plans for a state-wide ban, adding a clause that made hookah bars exempt because it is 'part of Middle Eastern tradition.'

It meant the bill lost the support of the American Lung Association in California, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, groups that are scrambling to curb rising rates of teen tobacco use. 

Mark Pampanin, a spokesman for Councilmember David Ryu, chair of LA's Health Committee, said Ryu's 'focus has been on ensuring that we pass a strong restriction that keeps young people from being roped into Big Tobacco.' 

TEEN TOBACCO USE BY NUMBERS 
HIGH SCHOOL TOBACCO USE

• E-cigarettes - 27.5%
• Cigars - 7.6%
• Cigarettes - 5.8%
• Smokeless tobacco - 4.8%
• Hookahs - 3.4%
• Pipe tobacco - 1.1%

MIDDLE SCHOOL TOBACCO USE

• E-cigarettes - 10.5%
• Cigars - 2.3%
• Cigarettes - 2.3%
• Smokeless tobacco - 1.8%
• Hookahs - 1.6%

'His concern as chair of the Health Committee is the health of our city and especially the health of young people.'

Pampanin added: 'It's not in [Ryu's] interest to harm local businesses or small businesses as an immigrant whose parents owned a small business.

'At the end of the day, he is not on the side of young people smoking so if someone's business model relies on that, that's not something we could support.'  

Hours before the committee hearing, the CDC released new data on teen tobacco use, showing 6.2 million high schoolers and middle schoolers use tobacco - an increase from last year.  

CDC director Dr Robert Redfield said the figures show were are losing the progress made to curb tobacco use and nicotine addiction.  

Eric McKandes, owner of Mid City’s Legacy Lounge, the first African American hookah lounge in LA, said hookah lounges are not to be blamed for the rise in teen nicotine addiction. They have been running long before the recent uptick in teen nicotine addiction, and are barely used by teens.

He says the move would simply deprive adults of an alcohol-free space to socialize.

'These lounges are social spaces for people who want a night out with friends without alcohol,' McKandes said.

'Why should it be OK to go to a bar and get drunk but not to a hookah lounge to share a cultural experience? Banning hookah lounges would be like banning Irish pubs.' 

Saad Fakher, who owns Habibi Cafe, the first ever hookah lounge in LA, a popular celebrity hang-out in Westwood, said: 'It would be shameful if people were to lose the social outlet that hookah offers because of unrelated concerns about youth vaping. Hookah is nothing like vaping or cigarettes.'  

Ad watch: Would proposed California flavored tobacco ban make an exception for hookahs?

If passed into law, Senate Bill 793 would ban the sale of tobacco products that carry a flavor profile other than tobacco, including menthol cigarettes. However, certain tobacco products would be exempted from the ban, including hookah tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigars valued at $12 or more.

One of the digital ads in circulation is targeting the bill’s key supporters, in this case Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento.

TEXT: “Assemblymember Kevin McCarty claims to be fighting tobacco use — then why is he pushing a bill that would protect flavored hookah? We can’t ignore the California Department of Health, which reports that California kids smoke more flavored hookah than flavored cigarettes.

Asm. McCarty, it’s time to STOP the flawed SB 793.”

 

ANALYSIS: SB 793 does exempt the sale of flavored hookah from the ban.

The bill’s author, Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, explained during a July hearing on the bill why the hookah was exempted from the bill, saying that hookah is consumed using a large pipe that cannot be carried or concealed, and that its consumption is tied to “celebratory events on special occasions.”

“It’s not a daily use product. And that’s why it’s different than an e-cigarette, it’s different than a tobacco cigarette, and it’s different than a vaping device. And that’s why we felt that it would be appropriate to exclude them because it’s not the same problem as we find today,” Hill said.

According to a 2016 California Department of Public Health fact sheet, “recent declines in the prevalence of cigarette smoking among youth have coincided with an increased use of e-cigarettes and hookah tobacco.”

The ad campaign further alleges that passage of SB 793 would result in a loss of revenue of up to $1.8 billion over the next four years.

That’s unlikely, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, which analyzed the potential revenue loss for a previous version of this bill and found that in the first full year it would have been in effect, the state would have lost $218 million.

Since the bill has been amended to include some exemptions, “the revenue loss is slightly overstated,” according to an Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis of the bill.

‘It Would Completely Kill It’; Chicago Hookah Lounge Owners Worried About Ordinance

CHICAGO (CBS) —   An entire industry said it could be forced to shut down in Chicago for good.

Not because of the coronavirus, but because of a proposed new law aimed at protecting children.
CBS 2’s Jim Williams has a story you’ll see only on 2 about a ban that would be bad business for hookah bars.

It would be a ban on flavored tobacco products in Chicago. Officials have called the dangers they pose to children a public health emergency. But 17 hookah lounge owners in Chicago are asking for an exception for their businesses. Without it, they say they’ll have to close.

Fifteen years ago Rayid Khalil started his business where he hoped customers could relax.  A hookah lounge in Lakeview, where they smoke flavored tobacco.
“It would be a place I would want to go after a long day of work,” Khalil said.  “We have a pretty large following.”

But first, the pandemic shut down Khalil’s House of Hookah temporarily. And now, Khalil said a proposed city ordinance is an even a bigger threat.
“I mean, for me personally, it would take a business I’ve worked incredibly hard, paid a lot of taxes over the years and employ a lot of people and it would completely kill it.”

The ordinance would ban flavored tobacco products to protect children. The Centers for Disease Control said e-cigarette use or vaping has skyrocketed among teenagers.
A large bipartisan group of officials has cited its dangers from President Trump and the First Lady to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “This is absolutely a public health crisis,” said Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) a sponsor of the Chicago ordinance. “It’s about saving lives. “Flavored tobacco is geared toward middle school and high school age children,” O’Shea said. But Khalil said he and 16 other hookah lounge owners in Chicago make sure they keep kids out. A person has to be 21 to enter his establishment. No children allowed inside.
“Not at all, whatsoever. Not even for a bottle of water,” Khalil said.

He calls hookah a centuries-old tradition, important to middle eastern communities. Could hookah lounges stay open with a different kind of product?
“No. Hookah tobacco is a fruit-based tobacco. So you’ll have flavors like apples, lemon, cherry,” Khalil said.

When asked if he would be willing to support the ordinance if hookah lounges were exempt, Khalil said yes. “I’m happy to discuss our options on this,” said Ald. O’Shea. He added that he and his colleagues will take a look at Massachusetts, where lawmaker there did make such an exception. A hearing on the proposed ordinance will be held next Monday in the City Council’s health committee.

Tobacco industry could ask California voters to overturn ban on flavored tobacco sales

A notice was filed with the state by an attorney who has represented firms including R.J. Reynolds, which led the opposition campaign to Senate Bill 793. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill on Friday and it takes effect Jan. 1.

Attorney Aaron Agenbroad is one of a group of three people who submitted papers to the state attorney general’s office for preparation of a title and summary for a possible referendum petition. He did not respond to requests for comment on who is behind the referendum.

If opponents qualify the referendum by collecting the signatures of 623,212 registered voters, the tobacco ban would be placed on hold until voters are given a chance to weigh in, possibly in 2022.

The referendum is being pursued by a new political group called the California Coalition for Fairness. A representative for the group did not respond to questions seeking the identity of its members.

“We agree that youth should never have access to any tobacco products, but this can be achieved without imposing a total prohibition on products that millions of adults choose to use,” the coalition said in a statement. “This law goes too far and is unfair, particularly since lawmakers have exempted hookah, expensive cigars and flavored pipe tobacco from the prohibition.”

State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), the author of the bill, denounced the plan to seek a referendum.

“California fought Big Tobacco and won,” Hill said. “This shameless industry is a sore loser and it is relentless. It wants to keep killing people with its candy-, fruit-, mint- and menthol-flavored poison. The adults who are hooked on nicotine aren’t enough for Big Tobacco; it wants our kids too.”

The new law bans the retail sale of flavored tobacco products including menthol. Reynolds ran a television ad campaign against the legislation that drew criticism from Black community leaders for claiming the bill singled out people of color.

Hill introduced the legislation in response to a spike in teen use of electronic cigarettes and flavored tobacco products.

Hill cited a 2018 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found that 67% of high school students and 49% of middle school students who used tobacco products in the prior 30 days reported using a flavored tobacco product during that time.

Another proponent listed on the referendum filing, Jaime Rojas, was a spokesman for a tobacco industry campaign to overturn a ban on flavored tobacco in San Francisco. He also could not be reached for comment.

The filing was not a surprise to Jim Knox, managing director of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Inc.

“The tobacco industry has always shown it will go to any length to deceive the public about its deadly product,” Knox said. “We are confident that if it gets on the ballot, that California voters will see through this despicable tobacco industry ploy to continue to lure kids into a lifetime of tobacco addiction.”

L.A. is taking aim at flavored tobacco. Hookah businesses are upset

In front of the pale tower of Los Angeles City Hall, Janet Azhand delivered an impassioned speech in Farsi, surrounded by hookah sellers bearing signs that urged officials to “Save Hookah” and “Preserve Our Culture.”

“Hookah is not vape,” Azhand, who works for a hookah lounge, later told a reporter in English. “They don’t understand.”

In Los Angeles, the push to rid store shelves of tobacco products infused with sweet, minty or fruity flavors has run into opposition from hookah sellers, who argue it could destroy a cherished tradition among Armenians, Arabs and other communities in which hookah has been a centerpiece of gatherings and celebrations.

Under the proposal, L.A. could ban businesses from selling many flavored tobacco products, a move meant to stop teens from getting hooked on nicotine. A coalition of youth and public health advocates backing the ban argues that flavored products have lured more teens to use tobacco, including by vaping with electronic cigarettes.

Fruity, sweet and smooth flavors are “the new and attractive delivery system to get kids hooked to nicotine,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said at a city hearing a year and a half ago. “And that is evil. There’s no question about it.”

The last time the issue was heard at City Hall over a year ago, council members suggested allowing some sales of flavored tobacco for consumption on site at lounges, but hookah sellers say the plan is still too restrictive and would not allow lounges to be passed down to future generations. Nor would it allow people to buy hookah tobacco to smoke at home.

For Muslims who don’t drink for religious reasons, “they can’t go to a bar to socialize,” said Hrant Vartzbedian, executive director of the National Hookah Community Assn. Vartzbedian said “the hookah lounge is a safe place for them” — a place where new immigrants go to make friends, find work, maybe even meet a future spouse.

At the last hearing, council members also suggested exempting some menthol cigarettes amid concerns about unfairly affecting Black consumers, who are disproportionately likely to smoke products flavored with the minty compound.

Alain M. R’bibo, Partner, Co-Chair of the firm’s Century City Real Estate Department, Allen Matkins

As hookah sellers gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday morning, groups opposed to banning menthol cigarettes rallied nearby, holding up signs that read “Exempt One Exempt All” and “Hookah is Cultural ... Menthol is Not?” Pastor William Smart Jr., president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, argued it was unfair to ban menthols favored by Black smokers while allowing other cigarettes to continue to be sold.

“The ban on menthol is singling out people of color,” argued Olivia Barbour, a 71-year-old resident of the Westmont neighborhood. “If they’re so concerned about our health, ban it all” — all kinds of tobacco, she said.

Backers of the proposed ban, including the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society, have argued against any exemptions for menthol or hookah tobacco, insisting that an across-the-board ban on flavored tobacco is needed to thwart youth addiction.

“Candy-, fruit- and mint-flavored products are enticing kids into a potential lifetime of addiction to tobacco,” said Primo J. Castro, an L.A.-area spokesman for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We need bold action to address this epidemic. We need to rid store shelves of flavored tobacco — and that includes all flavors and all products.”

Although some community groups have opposed efforts to ban menthol as discriminatory, others argue that the real problem is the tobacco industry preying on Black consumers. Pastor John Cager of Ward A.M.E. Church said supposed concerns about equity were “a straw man argument” that “Big Tobacco wants to use to distract.”

There’s “the idea that somehow it is racist to target a product that has killed Black people,” said Akili, a longtime activist who goes by one name, who works as project coordinator with Corporate Accountability. “This is not about singling out Black smokers. This is about an industry that has targeted Black smokers ... and it has had devastating results.”

Scores of California cities and counties have passed restrictions on selling flavored tobacco, including San Francisco, West Hollywood and Long Beach. The decision to draft such a law in Los Angeles, scheduled to head to the City Council on Wednesday, comes as a California law targeting such products has been put on hold, with a state referendum backed by the tobacco industry now headed for the ballot.

Hookah businesses have argued that the L.A. law should mirror the California bill passed last year, which allows the sale of “flavored shisha tobacco products” from retailers who adhere to state laws.

A hookah is “3 feet all. They’re very hard to conceal. You don’t see hookahs being confiscated in schools,” said Rima Khoury, general counsel for the hookah tobacco manufacturer Fumari. “It’s hard to understand how a cultural tradition can be erased in the name of saving the children when it’s not even an issue with youth usage.”

Afif El-Hasan, a national spokesman for the American Lung Assn., countered that a hookah session can result in much heavier exposure to nicotine than lighting up a cigarette and poses the same risk of appealing to kids with sweet flavors. One study found that among college students who had ever used nicotine products, roughly a quarter started with hookah. And teens have reported that they like using hookah because it comes in flavors they like, another study found.

“Kids aren’t going to sneak the hookah into the bathroom” at school, he said, “but the reality is, the use of that product contributes to nicotine addiction, which may lead people to get other sources of nicotine between sessions.”

Tobacco companies including Reynolds American, Swedish Match and Altria have spent more than $500,000 on lobbying and related expenditures over the proposed rules since the beginning of 2020, according to city disclosures.

Reynolds spokeswoman Kaelan Hollon said the company is “committed to keeping tobacco products out of the hands of youth,” but argued that flavor bans have “demonstrated unintended consequences.” One statistical analysis found that San Francisco’s flavor ban was associated with an increase in recent cigarette smoking among high schoolers, while teen smoking dropped in school districts without flavor bans during the same period.

Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, in turn, have spent more than $300,000 on efforts to advance the proposed ban during that same period, including spending on consulting fees.

Lisa Lu, a national youth ambassador for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, argued that flavored tobacco had contributed to teen use of tobacco because it is “very attractive to young kids.” In one study, the vast majority of young people who reported ever having used tobacco said they started with something that was flavored.

“It makes it seem harmless,” Lu said, citing flavors such as cotton candy and slushie. “It kind of de-stigmatizes the usual harms associated with tobacco.”

Menthol has also been tied to greater difficulty with quitting smoking. And young smokers have been more likely than older consumers to use menthol cigarettes, according to one study published in 2016.

L.A. is debating a possible ban as restrictions on flavored tobacco are in flux on the federal and state level. In April, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would move to ban menthol tobacco cigarettes and flavored cigars. California lawmakers voted for a statewide ban targeting many flavored tobacco products last year, but the law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom was put on hold after a referendum qualified for the November 2022 ballot.

Still, the council committee decided to exempt some menthol cigarettes from the proposed ban, allowing them to continue to be sold at retail stores that sell only tobacco products. O’Farrell recommended that they also carve out an exemption for any existing “legally operating smokers’ lounges,” permitting them to sell flavored tobacco for consumption on site.At the last hearing on the L.A. proposal, some residents argued that banning menthols would lead to more criminalization of Black people. City Atty. Mike Feuer stressed that any L.A. ban would apply to the sale of such products, not their use.

Hookah tobacco sellers argued that the exemption was not legally workable for lounges and said that it was unfair to prohibit the transfer of permits for selling flavored tobacco at hookah lounges.

Arnie Abramyan, president of the National Hookah Community Assn. and owner of a Tujunga hookah lounge, complained that under that rule, “when I die, the business dies with me.”

Wednesday’s vote is not the final step: If the City Council votes to draft the proposed ban, it will be drawn up by city lawyers and come back to the council for its approval.