They Should Have a Kalam El Nass Episode About That

Daily Star:

A man died of suffocation from nargileh smoke at his home in Dora, the National News Agency reported Friday. Elias Qostantine […] had locked his door after bringing in a bowl of charcoal and a nargileh, causing the room to fill with smoke.

Last week, the popular LBC talk show created a stampede away from Lebanese restaurants because it brought up individual cases of food poisoning that happened in some Lebanese outfits. The episode was so potent that it sparked the cabinet to come up with a food safety law and caused the Lebanese restaurants lobby to protest.

This made for good TV, but it had misplaced priorities. Smoking in Lebanese restaurants is a much bigger problem, especially in the winter where everyone is indoor and the windows are shut. People are much more likely to die from inhaling smoke than they are from eating restaurant food. But because the risks are not instantaneous and visible, the TVs shy away from tackling the problem. (Although, to be fair, LBC in particular is serious about combatting smoking).