STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2562

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2783

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2783 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Expand smoke-free zones around individual buildings of public housing projects and state low-income housing projects, and any entrance, exit, window, or ventilation intake that serves an enclosed or partially enclosed area;

(2) Add smoke-free zones around administrative office buildings for public housing projects and elder or elderly housing; and

(3) Increase the setback for designated smoking areas from twenty feet to twenty-five feet from any building.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Department of Health, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Hawaii Public Health Institute, and one individual. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from three individuals.

Your Committees find that secondhand smoke contains more than seven thousand chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic, and approximately seventy of which can cause cancer. The United States Surgeon General concluded in 2010 that there is no risk-free level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Your Committee also finds that exposure to thirdhand smoke, which is residual nicotine and other chemicals left on indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke, may also pose health threats, especially to infants and young children who mouth objects and touch affected surfaces that may contain thirdhand smoke.

Your Committees further find that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development instituted its final rule, effective February 3, 2017, requiring public housing agencies to implement a smoke-free policy by July 30, 2018, that establishes a twenty-five foot smoke-free radius around public housing units and administrative office buildings.

Your Committees find that this measure will bring Hawaii statutes into conformity with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's smoke-free policy and help protect residents of public housing and others in the vicinity of public housing project administrative office buildings from secondhand and thirdhand smoke.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2783 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Housing,

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair