Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1468 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ban smoking in all areas of airports and hospitals.

The Department of Health, Hawaii County Council members, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association of Hawaii, Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, and seven individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that airports and hospitals should be free of second-hand smoke. According to the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, second-hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in this country, killing fifty-three thousand nonsmokers in the United States each year, and even a half-hour of second-hand smoke exposure can cause heart damage similar to that of habitual smokers.

A ban on smoking in all areas of airports and hospitals protects visitors, patients, and employees alike. This more stringent measure will prevent unnecessary and unwanted exposure to the harmful chemicals and carcinogens that are present in cigarette smoke.

Your Committees have amended this measure by expanding the ban on smoking in an airport to cover all areas from curb to cabin at all state airports, to close any potential loopholes.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1468, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1468, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.