Dandenong will host a forum on plans to regulate shisha.
Greater Dandenong councillor Matthew Kirwan said his push for legislative change as part of current Tobacco Act reforms had received a strong response from other councils, including letters of support to the health minister.
He said invitations to the Tuesday 12 July forum to discuss further advocacy on the health issue had been sent to affected councils, the Cancer Council of Victoria, the Australian Lebanese Medical Association and the National Heart Foundation.
Cr Kirwan has spoken out against shisha lounges as unregulated health risks, with no minimum age limits or controls on indoor smoking.
In 2013 Greater Dandenong Council wrote to the previous State Government about an end to indoor-smoking exemptions that allow shisha smoking in cafes, restaurants and workplaces.
Last year, the council started forming an alliance with health groups and council peak-bodies to lobby the State Government for reform.
Councillors passed a motion declaring that a “judicial interpretation” of the Tobacco Act could apply to shisha lounges.
Cr 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”.
Ali Adam, who has run the popular Cafe Asmara in Springvale Road for the past 10 years, said he was battling a “shisha phobia”.
He argued that his fruit-flavoured shisha had minimal tobacco content, estimated at less than 0.1 per cent, and caused fewer problems than alcohol.
“This shisha phobia is wrong.
“Most of Hollywood’s stars go to shisha places – it’s more sociable,” he said.
