By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
SHISHA lounges will continue to operate “unregulated” despite the State Government announcing this week a widening of its tobacco smoking bans to outdoor dining areas.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessey said only shisha with tobacco as its “main ingredient” was regulated in the same way as other tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars.
“However if the shisha contains very little or no tobacco, it would not meet the definition of tobacco product.”
She said the government would not change the status of waterpipe tobacco or shisha under the Tobacco Act – which regulates the banning of smoking tobacco products in certain areas.
The government will apply smoking bans in outdoor dining areas from August 2017, it announced this week.
Greater Dandenong councillors this month passed a motion declaring that a “judicial interpretation” of the Tobacco Act could apply to shisha lounges.
Councillor Peter Brown said it could be argued that shishas’ main ingredient was tobacco, even if it was less than 50 per cent of the product, because it “is what motivates consumption”.
“Quite realistically, I doubt that any shisha lounge would commercially survive if there was no tobacco in the shisha pipe.
“The absence of tobacco would make the pipe content unsaleable and thus the presence of tobacco in the shisha is the significant element, not the quantum of tobacco.”
Cr Matthew Kirwan has spoken out against shisha lounges as unregulated health risks, with no minimum age limits or controls on indoor smoking.
“When a shisha lounge limits entry to over-18s, we’re only relying on goodwill on that.
“If police or a council officer sees a 12-year-old in these venues, they can’t do anything.”
In 2013, Greater Dandenong Council wrote to the previous State Government about an end to indoor-smoking exemptions that allow for shisha smoking in cafes, restaurants and workplaces.
This year, the council started forming an alliance with health groups and council peak-bodies to lobby the State Government.
