Report Title:

Public facilities; no-smoking

Description:

Reduces exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke by establishing a smoke-free environment for state employees and for members of the public visiting or using state facilities in state buildings.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2379

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

  

STATE OF HAWAII

  

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO SMOKE-FREE WORKPLACES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to amend chapter 328K, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to reduce exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke by establishing a smoke-free environment for state employees and for members of the public visiting or using state facilities in state buildings. The legislature finds that there is consensus in the medical and scientific communities that exposure to secondhand smoke, sometimes referred to as environmental tobacco smoke, causes death and disease in nonsmokers. Although the first reports of the health hazards of secondhand smoke date back to the early 1980s, the first comprehensive report on the matter was the 1986 Surgeon General's Report on the Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, which concluded that:

(1) Involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers;

(2) The children of parents who smoke compared with the children of nonsmoking parents have an increased frequency of respiratory infections, and increased respiratory symptoms; and

(3) The simple separation of smokers and nonsmokers within the same air space may reduce the exposure of nonsmokers to environmental tobacco smoke.

Since the 1986 report, the evidence has continued to mount that secondhand smoke is a major public health problem. In 1993, the United States Environmental Protection Agency classified tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen, and found that secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in healthy nonsmokers. Many other large-scale studies support the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusions.

A University of California, San Francisco, study in 1991 found that secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the country, killing 53,000 nonsmokers in the United States each year. The National Cancer Institute determined in 1999 that secondhand smoke is responsible for the early deaths of as many as 65,000 Americans annually. One of the most recent studies, published by the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2005, concluded that there are "developmental, respiratory, carcinogenic and cardiovascular effects for which there is sufficient evidence of a causal relationship, with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, including fatal outcomes such as sudden infant death syndrome and heart disease mortality, as well as serious chronic diseases such as childhood asthma."

SECTION 2. Section 328K-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§328K-2 Prohibition in certain areas open to the public. Except as otherwise provided in this part, smoking shall be prohibited in the following places within the State:

(1) Elevators in buildings open to and used by the public, including elevators in apartment and other multi-unit residential buildings;

(2) Semiprivate rooms, wards, waiting rooms, lobbies, and public hallways of public and private health care facilities, including but not limited to, hospitals, clinics, and physicians′ and dentists′ offices. Smoking shall be permitted in a private room or in a semiprivate room when there is no objection by any patient occupying such room;

(3) Restaurants.

(A) All restaurants shall provide nonsmoking areas which are reasonably proportionate to the preference of the users and so located as to obtain the maximum effect of existing physical barriers and ventilation systems, and seating arrangements, to minimize the toxic effect of smoke in adjacent nonsmoking areas; provided no fixed structural or other physical modifications of the restaurant shall be required; and

(B) Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent a proprietor or person in charge of a facility from designating the entire restaurant as a nonsmoking area. Owners or proprietors of restaurants may expand or contract the size of designated nonsmoking areas to meet the requirements of their patrons;

(4) Any room which is used primarily for exhibiting any motion picture, stage drama, dance, musical performance, or other similar performance during the time that the room is open to the public for such performance;

(5) Museums, libraries, and galleries;

(6) [The following facilities or areas] In state or county owned or controlled buildings[:]

(A) Meeting or conference rooms;

(B) Auditorium or sports areas that are enclosed;

(C) Community centers where persons may gather for meetings, parties, or any other purpose where the area is enclosed;

(D) Waiting areas, baggage claim areas, and check-in counters within buildings in all state airports; and

(E) All areas open to the public, including service counters and reception or waiting areas;] as required in section 328K-13.

(7) Except as otherwise provided in this section, all areas open to the public in the following business establishments:

(A) Banks;

(B) Credit unions;

(C) Financial services loan companies;

(D) Retail stores; and

(E) Savings and loan associations;

(8) Any restroom open to the public;

(9) Taxicabs, when carrying nonsmoking passengers;

(10) Cruise ships. The dining area of all cruise ships shall include a nonsmoking area which is reasonably proportionate to the preference of the users and so located as to obtain the maximum effect of existing physical barriers and ventilation systems, and seating arrangements, to minimize the toxic effect of smoke; provided no fixed structural or other physical modifications of the cruise ship shall be required. This paragraph shall not apply to any cruise ship that does not serve any food or meals during its course of operation, or where the service of food is only incidental to the consumption of alcoholic beverages; and

(11) Notwithstanding the exceptions stated in section 328K-3, any area open to the public which has been designated by the person having control of the area as a nonsmoking area and marked with a "no smoking" sign.

SECTION 3. Section 328K-12, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§328K-12 Definitions. For the purposes of this part:

"Employee" means any person who is employed [more than twenty hours per week] by any employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit."

"Employer" means any state or county agency, or any private corporation, firm, or association which receives state funds under chapter 42F or chapter 103F."

"Enclosed" means [closed in] any area covered by a roof [and four walls with openings for ingress and egress. Areas] and includes, but is not limited to, areas commonly described as public lobbies [are not enclosed for the purposes of this chapter.], lanais, covered walkways, and any area within the exterior footprint of a building even if the area is not covered by a roof.

["Office workplace"] "Workplace" means any enclosed structure or portion thereof used by an employer. Additionally, "workplace" shall include any building that is state owned, rented, or leased, or otherwise provided in part or its entirety to non-state parties.

"[Simple majority" means any number greater than half of the persons expressing a preference in any specific work area.]

"Smoking" or "to smoke" means inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning tobacco or any other plant material, or burning or carrying any lighted equipment for smoking tobacco or any other plant material, or the personal habit commonly known as smoking."

SECTION 4. Section 328K-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§328K-13[]] [Regulation of] Prohibition on smoking in the [office] workplace[.]; notice. (a) Each employer in the State shall [within three months after June 24, 1987,] adopt, implement, and maintain a written smoking policy which shall [contain, at the minimum, the following provisions and requirements:] prohibit smoking in the workplace.

[(1) That if any nonsmoking employee objects to the employer about smoke in the employee′s workplace, the employer, using already available means of ventilation or separation or partition of office space, shall attempt to reach a reasonable accommodation, insofar as possible, between the preferences of nonsmoking and smoking employees; provided that an employer is not required by this chapter to make any expenditures or structural changes to accommodate the preferences of nonsmoking or smoking employees; and

(2) That if an accommodation which is satisfactory to all affected employees cannot be reached in any given office workplace, the preferences of a simple majority of employees in each specifically affected area shall prevail and the employer shall accordingly prohibit or allow smoking in that particular area of the office workplace. If the employer′s decision is unsatisfactory to the nonsmoking employees, a simple majority of all nonsmoking employees can appeal to the director of health for the determination of a reasonable accommodation. Where the employer prohibits smoking in an office workplace, the area in which smoking is prohibited shall be clearly marked with signs.]

(b) [The smoking policy shall be announced within two weeks of the vote of preferences of the employees in each respective work area and posted conspicuously in all the affected workplaces.] By October 1, 2006, each employer shall post and keep posted a notice setting forth the requirements of this part in conspicuous places in every workplace where any employee is employed so as to permit the employee to observe readily a copy on the way to or from the employee's workplace."

SECTION 5. Section 328K-14, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is

amended to read as follows:

"[[]§328K-14[]] Where smoking not regulated. [This chapter does not regulate smoking in the following places and under the following conditions within the State:] Notwithstanding any other provision of this part to the contrary, the following areas shall be exempt from the provisions of sections 328K-12 and 328K-13:

(1) Any property owned or leased by federal governmental entities; [or]

(2) Private enclosed office workplaces occupied exclusively by smokers, even though such office workplaces may be visited by nonsmokers, excepting places in which smoking is prohibited by a county fire department or by other law, ordinance, rule, or regulation[.];

(3) Private residences, unless otherwise prohibited under licensure, regulation, or contracted agreement with the State; or

(4) Outdoor areas of places of employment."

SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

BY REQUEST