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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009
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VOLUME 121 ISSUE 36
UP IN SMOKE
Patrons smoke a variety of flavored shisha at the Hookah House Tuesday night in Lawrence. Although hookah smoke has fewer compounds than cigarette smoke, studies have found hookah smoking to be as if not more harmful than cigarettes, leading some to believe hookah leisolation is on the horizon.
Tanner Grubbs/KANSAN
Hookah harmful; despite myths
BY ALY VAN DYKE avandyke@kansan.com
Hani Chahine walks the entire length of the Hookah House which he co-owns, in a quick eight seconds. He slows only to load a hookah with burning coals.
Once his customers are happy and smoking from their hookahs, Chahine, Tripoli, Lebanon, junior, steps outside a smoke filled room to have a cigarette.
Chahine can't smoke the cigarette inside because it's against Lawrence's indoor smoking ordinance, which passed in 2004. He and his customers can continue to puff from their hookahs inside
Follow Kansan writer Aly Van Dyke at twitter. com/alyvandyke
because the lounge qualifies as a retail tobacco store.
Similar exemptions have kept hookah lounges throughout the country from feeling the heat of recent tobacco legislation and smoking bans.
But with the Food and Drug Administration taking a harder look at marketing ploys to attract younger tobacco smokers and as
more studies confirm the negative health effects of hookah smoking, some say hookah could be the next tobacco product put on burn notice.
"I believe that is something that could very well be on the agenda of the Food and Drug Administration," Mary Jayne Hellebust, executive director of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition, said. "They have the power to eliminate flavors in those kind of products."
Britain and France already have laws prohibiting hookah bars under indoor smoking bans. Several states and cities such as Seattle and Boston, have considered passing similar bans to include hookah
or they have passed other restrictions, such as preventing hookah lounges from serving food.
Chahine said he wasn't worried about bans prohibiting hookah because hookah is more than tradition than cheap thrills. He said the 18-year-old age limit helped prevent younger people from smoking.
But that doesn't mean younger people aren't smoking at home; the Hookah House, 730 Massachusetts Street, and other retail stores throughout Lawrence sell hookahs and shisha, the flavored tobacco smoked by a hookah, for personal use.
HEALTH RISKS
Printed on the black box of Alex Horwitz's favorite shisha flavor, cotton candy, is the Surgeon General Warning found on cigarette cartons: "Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy"
The ingredients on the box show the shisha contains, among other things, Virginia tobacco, honey and nicotine.
"Getting smoke into your lungs can't be healthy," Horwitz, Prairie Village junior, said. "It's not what
SEE SMOKE ON PAGE 3A
ARTS
Students complete preparations for'Macbeth' premiere
BY ANNA ARCHIBALD
aarchibald@kansan.com
It took Alex Salamat a few minutes to register what he saw in front of him: "Macbeth…Alex Salamat." He had been reading the play for weeks. Now auditions were finally over and the cast list was posted.
"It was so surreal when I found out I got the part," Salamat, Mission Hills senior, said. "Now I'm just ready to perform the story for other people. I can't wait to see the audience fill the theater once the curtain goes up."
"It took a little while to sink in that I had gotten the part," Buchanan said. "Alex and I auditioned together and that felt so perfect. The weekend they were deciding parts I was feeling so strangely confident, and when I found out I had the part, it was like walking around in a dream."
Amy Buchanan, Stillwater, Okla. senior, who will be playing Lady Macbeth, said she auditioned with Salamat in the first week of school.
Amy Buchan rehearses her role as Lady Macbeth in the University's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by professional theater director Tazewell Thompson. Performances start tonight in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
Follow Kansan writer Anna Archibald at twitter.com/ archmonarch.
Premiering tonight, the
MACBETH
For more information, call the University Theatre at (785) 864-3982.
WHO: University Theater
WHAT: University theater
WHAT: "Mabeth"
WHERE:Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall
WHEN: Oct. 8, 9, 10 and 13th at 7:30 p.m. and Oct.
11 at 2:30 p.m.
TICKETS:$10 for students,$17 for senior citizens, faculty and staff and $18 for general public
shortest play in William Shakespeare's repertoire, "Macbeth," will begin its five-night run in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy
Tanner Grubbs/KANSAN
The drama begins with three witches prophesizing to Macbeth that he will eventually become King of Scotland. Throughout the
Hall.
play, Macbeth is confronted with personal and public dilemmas that lead to his downfall.
The show was chosen by Tazewell Thompson, a New York
guest director. He directed "Street Scene" in the fall of 2008 and was
SEE MACBETH ON PAGE 3A
CAMPUS
KU works to improve cell phone signals
BY JESSE RANGEL
jrangel@kansan.com
Marginal cell phone network coverage in Wescoe Hall almost cost Caylor Luther $1,400 scholarship.
Luther, Troy sophomore, was sitting in a Western Civilization class in Wescoe Hall last month with his cell phone in his pocket. An expected phone call from the French Foundation, an organization that offered him a scholarship, turned into a missed call and a voice mail. Representatives from the organization called during class but no signal in the concrete building meant no ring. Luther tried to return the call but for five days couldn't reach the office.
"I kept calling and I couldn't get a hold of them, so I had to wait for the weekend to go by until they were back in the office," Luther said. "I got kind of nervous. I was worried about it. I was in a dead zone."
After nearly a week of anticipation, Luther finally connected with the foundation and secured his scholarship.
As phone carriers work to install additional cellular capacity service on campus, a potential new antenna plan could make missed calls and campus dead zones vanish. The University is still finishing its installation of Wi-Fi networks. Talks are ongoing about a possible new system that distributes more powerful cell phone signals to the far corners on campus, such as the basement of Malott Hall. The Distributed Antenna System would place brand new antennas all over campus and would be connected to a fiber-optic cable network to antennas that connect to cell phone networks.
Chuck Crawford, director of IT, enterprise, infrastructure and security, said the University is talking with a third-party company to develop a "carrier-neutral" approach, where carriers would buy into the network and provide a multi-company solution on campus. The system would be at no cost to the University because the carriers would pay for it.
No contracts have been signed yet.
"This is a crucial need for us enhancing our communications capabilities with students," Crawford said.
Andy Haverkamp, Hoyt junior and technology director for Student Senate, said he thought cellular data was the way of the future.
"I believe within the next two or three years you're going to see less and less students with laptops and more and more students with smart phones such as the Blackberry, the iPhone, which can do all of their note-taking, e-mail, messaging, data transfer," Haverkamp said.
Crawford said the University had
SEE PHONES ON PAGE 3A
Follow Kansan'
writer Jesse Rangel
at twitter.com/
igglephile.
See an interactive explanation of how phone signals work.
index
Classifieds ... 7A
Crossword ... 4A
Horoscopes ... 4A
Classifieds...7A
Opinion...5A
Sports...10A
Sudoku...4A
German participants in sister city exchange arrive
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2009 The University Daily Kansan
Lawrence residents welcomes, students, prominent community members and an orchestra from Fürin, Germany. | See Kansan.com for story
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