The Ranger Online

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Features

A gaggle of youth gathers to sounds of Middle Eastern techno beats, dine on hummus and baba ghanouj, drink guava smoothies and smoke shisha from hookahs that permeate the air with fruity fragrances.

If this were a scene in a movie, the camera's lens would capture billows of smoke dancing from table to table on a makeshift patio with patches of green grass resembling Texas family gatherings of barbecues and birthdays only with the exotic taste of the Middle East added for flavor.

If this were a scene in a movie, it also might be rated R.

On April 10, the Motion Picture Association of America, through the Classification and Ratings Administration, which it oversees, issued a press release to the movie-making industry, stating that "now, all smoking will be considered and depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context may receive a higher rating."

This new provision for movie makers adds smoking to the litany of activities such as strong language, violence, drug use and nudity deemed rated R.

"Shisha smoking is about coming together and having a good time," Rashid Hijazi, owner of Shisha Cafe, 5500 Babcock Road, said. "The big difference between cigarette smoking and shisha smoking is that cigarette smokers have to have a pack everyday, while shisha smokers do it to have fun."

Hijazi may be smart to distance shisha smoking from cigarettes as the antismoking voice is growing louder in its insistence that smoking from water pipes is just as unhealthy as cigarette smoking.

According to a study on the American Cancer Society's Web site, http://www.cancer.org, hookah smoke may contain toxins that are not filtered out by water such as nicotine and carbon monoxide with concentrated levels that are "as high or higher than seen in cigarette smoking."

Hijazi stressed that all of his customers must be older than 18 years to smoke a hookah, and cigarette smoking is actually banned inside the cafe.

If this were a movie scene, a writer would have to omit the cigarette smoking in the scene or set the scene in an era where, historically, smoking was a socially acceptable part of everyday life to receive a rating lower than R.

A lower rating is important to studios because an R rating restricts anyone under the age of 17 from viewing without the accompaniment of an adult, preventing many possible moviegoers from purchasing tickets and resulting in less profit for the studios.

Continued...

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