HB3337

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that vitiligo is a serious skin condition, which causes a lack of pigmentation in the skin and can cause individuals afflicted with the disease to be sensitive to ultraviolet rays. The condition causes patches of skin to lose their pigmentation when the pigment-producing cells, or melanocytes, are attacked and destroyed, affecting the skin and leaving white patches. It is believed that vitiligo is an autoimmune disorder in which white blood cells direct the destruction of the melanocytes.

This disease affects an estimated one per cent of the world's population, including two to five million people in the United States. Individuals with vitiligo must protect their skin, especially areas of depigmentation, against excessive sun exposure by wearing protective clothing, applying sunscreen daily, and avoiding prolonged sun exposure. The simple, everyday task of driving long distances which many take for granted as a harmless part of life, may subject individuals with vitiligo to potentially damaging sun exposure.

Besides vitiligo, there are other skin conditions that affect people's skin pigmentation, causing them to be more vulnerable to sun exposure during all of their activities, including driving in an automobile. Examples of other disorders are albinism and pigmentation loss due to skin damage from ulcers, blisters, burns, infections and other conditions.

The health hazards that people with serious skin conditions face could be mitigated by the use of appropriately tinted automobile windows. Current levels of light transmittance through tinting allowed by law may not provide adequate protection for those individuals with vitiligo, albinism, and other skin conditions. Providing exceptions to the current statutory requirements would benefit these individuals without compromising vehicular safety or the conduct of traffic law enforcement.

The purpose of this Act is to allow motor vehicles registered to individuals with serious skin conditions such as vitiligo and albinism to be exempted from Hawaii's window tinting law.

SECTION 2. Section 291-21.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (d) to read as follows:

"(d) This section shall not apply to:

(1) Rearview mirrors;

(2) Adjustable nontransparent sun visors which are mounted forward of the side windows and are not attached to the glazing material;

(3) Signs, stickers, or other materials which are displayed in a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield farthest removed from the driver or signs, stickers, or other materials which are displayed in a five-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest the driver;

(4) Rear trunk lid handle or hinges;

(5) Window wipers and window wiper motors;

(6) Transparent sun screening film materials which are installed, affixed, or applied along the top edge of the windshield so long as such materials do not encroach upon the AS-1 portion of the windshield as provided by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 205 or no lower than four inches below the top of the windshield, when measured from the middle point of the bottom edge of the top windshield moulding if no AS-1 markings can be found in the left or right upper margin of the windshield;

(7) Sun screening devices for front side wing vents and windows which, when used in conjunction with the glazing material have a light transmittance of no less than thirty-five per cent plus or minus six per cent;

(8) Sun screening devices for side windows necessary for driving visibility which are to the rear of the driver and for rear windows necessary for driving visibility which, when used in conjunction with the glazing material, have a light transmittance of no less than thirty-five per cent plus or minus six per cent;

(9) Side windows which are to the rear of the driver and rear windows on vans, minivans, trucks, or buses; provided that the vehicles are equipped with rearview mirrors on both sides;

(10) Privacy drapes, curtains, or blinds, or any combination, installed on the interior of motor homes[.]; and

(11) Motor vehicles registered to a person with a serious skin condition that affects the pigmentation of that person's skin and for whom exposure to ultraviolet rays would pose a danger to the person's health, or registered to an immediate family member of that person; provided that the sun screening devices installed in these motor vehicles, when used in conjunction with the glazing material, have a light transmittance of no less than per cent plus or minus six per cent; provided further that the person shall provide documentation from the person's doctor stating that decreasing the ultraviolet ray transmittance through the windows of the motor vehicle will protect the health of the person. Only one motor vehicle per registered owner may be granted an exemption provided by this paragraph. If the registered owner is an immediate family member of a person afflicted with the serious skin condition, the motor vehicle granted the exemption under this paragraph may only be used while the person with the serious skin condition is in the vehicle.

As used in this paragraph, "immediate family member" means the spouse, any child, hanai child, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, and the spouses of such persons related to a person with a skin condition that affects the pigmentation of the skin and for whom ultraviolet rays would pose a danger to the individual's health."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	3337
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII