New Delhi, May 26: The Union health ministry has issued a notification that prohibits the delivery of any "service" in smoking areas, a move that anti-tobacco campaigners say will effectively ban hookah bars across the country.

The May 23 notification says "no service shall be allowed in any smoking area or space provided for smoking", and specifies that the entrance to smoking areas have to display a tobacco hazard warning and bar entry of persons below 18 years of age.

The notification relates to a section of India's tobacco control rules that prohibits smoking in public places but permits smoking in airports and hotels with more than 30 rooms, and restaurants with a seating capacity of 30 or more to have designated smoking zones.

Anti-tobacco activists view the notification as a move against hookah bars. Hookahs are water pipes laced with tobacco and flavours. Hookah bars have proliferated in large cities across the country and draw mainly young people, said Binoy Mathew, a campaigner with the NGO Voluntary Health Association of India.

"The notification prohibits rendering any services in smoking zones," Mathew said.

"Providing the hookah is itself a service, so this is a significant move to curb the use of hookahs in hotels and restaurants. If people want to use the hookah, they will need to bring their own hookah in the smoking area, just the way people light up their own cigarettes in smoking zones."

The VHAI, citing the US Centres for Disease Control, has said an hour-long hookah smoking session typically involves about 200 puffs, while smoking a cigarette involves 20 puffs. Hookah smokers appear to be at risk for the same cancers associated with cigarettes, the VHAI said.

Public health studies have estimated that tobacco-related diseases kill about a lakh Indians every year. Health surveys have in the past also indicated that about 5,500 young people experiment with tobacco each day.

The notification requires entrances to smoking zones to display a warning on a 60cm by 30cm board with the words "tobacco smoking is harmful to your health and the health of non-smokers" and "entry of persons below the age of eighteen is prohibited".