Most Iranians disapprove of hookah smoking

A survey has indicated that 67 percent of Iranians would support a ban on hookah smoking in coffee houses, according to a Tehran Times story quoting a Hamshahrionline report.

The study by the University of Tehran’s Center for Public Opinion Research was conducted in December among smokers and non-smokers more than 18 years of age living in both rural and urban areas across the country. The margin of error was said to be 5.3 percent.

About 13 percent of the respondents said they had smoked flavored hookah and 14 percent reported having smoked cigarettes during the month prior to the study’s being conducted.

More than 71 percent of the participants believed that hookah smoking was more harmful to health than was cigarette smoking.

And 86 percent of the respondents disapproved of hookah smoking. Women were more disapproving than were men, and villagers were more disapproving than were city people.