RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Most bars and restaurants are obeying North Carolina’s new indoor smoking ban, but some hookah bars are ignoring the law, saying they are exempt.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported that state officials say the state’s no-smoking law, which took effect Jan. 2, applies to all bars, even the state’s approximately 20 hookah bars.

But hookah bar owners and their proponents point to a section of the law that defines “smoking” as “the use or possession of a lighted cigarette, lighted cigar, lighted pipe, or any other lighted tobacco product.”

They say that while the tobacco used in hookah smoking is heated by charcoal, it’s never lit because a small metal screen or piece of foil provides a physical barrier between the coals and the tobacco.

Hookahs are long pipes used with flavored tobacco. Smokers heat tobacco and flavoring and use a tube to draw the smoke through a bowl of water to cool it.

An attorney for the Division of Public Health says hookahs fall under the “lighted pipe” definition.

“Your typical modern hookah tobacco is tobacco mixed with molasses or honey — depending on the brand — glycerin, flavoring and sometimes a little dye. So it’s very wet. If you tried to take a lighter to it, it just wouldn’t work because it’s too wet,” said Adam Bliss, the owner of Hookah Bliss, a hookah bar in Chapel Hill.

Hookah Bliss is doing business as usual, as are hookah bars in Wilmington and Asheville.

State Rep. Hugh Holliman, the chief sponsor of the smoking ban, said the Legislature never intended to cripple hookah bars.

“It’s not our intent to penalize hookah bars. We just don’t want to start making exceptions that are adverse to healthy consequences,” said Holliman, D-Davidson and the majority leader in the N.C. House.

It’s possible the Legislature would revisit the issue later this year, he said. “I would be willing to take a look at that and see if we could work a compromise,” he said.

Under the law, bars and restaurants that allow customers to smoke inside get written warnings for the first two offenses. After that, they can be fined $200 for each offense.

Local health directors are responsible for enforcing the law, based mostly on public complaints.

• Associated Press