Hookah Lounges Banned From Patchogue Village

Hookah lounges will not be lighting up in Patchogue Village anytime soon, as the Village Board of Trustees banned the bars at Monday’s Patchogue Village Board of Trustees meeting at Patchogue Village Hall.

Health concerns were primarily discussed as the reason for wanting to stop them from coming. Patchogue Village Mayor Paul Pontieri said that his own father died at age 42 from a heart attack that he said may have been partly caused by over-smoking.

“You can’t tell me that it’s not harmful to [customers’] health,” Pontieri said. “It’s not something that I would like to see within the Village that I live.”

Pontieri said the board had found water pipe sessions to not be any safer than cigarette smoking.

Village Attorney Brian Egan cited several pieces of research that the board looked through which focused on the health aspect of water pipe smoking. 

Trustee Tom Ferb mentioned during the discussion that according to his son, the bars are primarily used socially among college age young adults that are too young to enter bars that serve alcohol.

The board approved the ban unanimously at the meeting.

What are your thoughts on this ban? Have you tried hookah? Talk about it in the comments below.