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Bill may ban new hookah bars 

A controversial state bill to regulate hookah bars moved one step closer to becoming a reality last week when it passed the Connecticut General Assembly’s Public Health Committee.

The bill, introduced in January, would prohibit new hookah bars from opening after July 1 and order the Connecticut Department of Public Health to regulate the use of hookahs at already-existing venues. The hookah legislation passed the committee by a vote of 19 to nine, and will next come up for a vote in both the state Senate and Assembly sometime in mid-April. State Senator Gayle Slossberg, the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement that public health would benefit by state oversight of hookahs. . . .

When informed about the bill, three Yale students said they were strongly against any potential hookah ban.

“I would die without late-night hookah at Mamoun’s,” Juliet Liu ’14 said.

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