As people enjoy the hot weather and return to terraces, socialising is back - and for many, drinking and smoking is a part of it. 

Many regular and casual smokers will be seen indulging in a shisha, also known as “hookah” - or simply water pipe.

With multiple fruity tastes, and the fact that it is easily shared, this oriental vaping instrument is nonetheless a tobacco product. And so, all the laws to contain the noxious substance apply, Paulette Lenert, Luxembourg’s Health Minister, said in resonse to a parliamentary question on Monday.

Every point of the Grand Duchy’s anti-tobacco laws apply to the hookah, such as a ban on selling it to minors. And if a bar owner wants to allow smoking in their establishment, they must apply for a permit, Lenert said. 

All forms of advertising for tobacco product are prohibited, except in places where such products are sold, Lenert said.

“All of these measures are intended to make access to tobacco products for young people more difficult, to disparage the act of smoking and protect young people from passive smoking,” Lenert said.

A 2013 report by the Fondation Cancer alerted the shisha as a cause for great concern, given that one out of five people aged 15 to 24 smoked it.

Additionally, the report found that out of the country's 446,000 inhabitants aged 15 and above, 94,000 were smokers (21 percent) and 70,000 smoked daily.

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