title: Waterpipe tobacco smoking legislation and policy enactment: a global analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  (1) To review how current global tobacco control policies address regulation of waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS). (2) To identify features associated with enactment and enforcement of WTS legislation.
  
  
  METHODS
  (1) Legislations compiled by Tobacco Control Laws (www.tobaccocontrollaws.org). (2) Weekly news articles by 'Google Alerts' (www.google.com/alerts) from July 2013 to August 2014.
  
  
  METHODS
  (1) Countries containing legislative reviews, written by legal experts, were included. Countries prohibiting tobacco sales were excluded. (2) News articles discussing aspects of the WHO FCTC were included. News articles related to electronic-waterpipe, crime, smuggling, opinion pieces or brief mentions of WTS were excluded.
  
  
  METHODS
  (1) Two reviewers independently abstracted the definition of "tobacco product" and/or "smoking". Four tobacco control domains (smokefree law, misleading descriptors, health warning labels and advertising/promotion/sponsorship) were assigned one of four categories based on the degree to which WTS had specific legislation. (2) Two investigators independently assigned at least one theme and associated subtheme to each news article.
  
  
  RESULTS
  (1) Reviewed legislations of 62 countries showed that most do not address WTS regulation but instead rely on generic tobacco/smoking definitions to cover all tobacco products. Where WTS was specifically addressed, no additional legislative guidance accounted for the unique way it is smoked, except for in one country specifying health warnings on waterpipe apparatuses (2) News articles mainly reported on noncompliance with public smoking bans, especially in India, Pakistan and the UK.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A regulatory framework evaluated for effectiveness and tailored for the specificities of WTS needs to be developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jawad
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Lama
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: El Kadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Sanaa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mugharbil
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Rima
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakkash
mesh_terms: D014943:Global Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D011640:Public Policy; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: Global health; Non-cigarette tobacco products; Public policy