Government must protect
By John Henry Felix
people from smokersIN May of last year, the Honolulu City Council unanimously passed a bill introduced by Councilman Mufi Hannemann and myself. That bill prohibited smoking in most indoor workplaces.
At the time, there was opposition by a number of establishments based on the erroneous belief that barring smoking would drive away their customers. It appears that those establishments suffered no harm.
In fact, anecdotal evidence indicates that some places of business actually experienced increased customer usage owing to the healthier, "family-friendly," smoke-free environment.
Originally, I had proposed that the bill include restaurants and bars in the workplace smoking prohibition. That proposal failed to garner enough support on the Council. But it is time to try again.
Bill 82, which I introduced earlier this month, does just that. It extends the protection of a safe workplace environment, which the Council granted to most of Oahu's workers, to employees of bars and restaurants.
In 1995, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported 35,165 residents of Oahu were employed in eating and drinking establishments. Their occupations include management, wait help, table buspersons, host staff and entertainers.
One can only speculate on the harm done to those who, through no real choice of their own, "smoked" someone else's second-hand smoke while trying to make an honest living.
In fact, the average restaurant/bar worker who is a non-smoker is exposed to three and a half packs of cigarettes in an average work day. This is reminiscent of coal miners exposed to lethal gases in their place of work, debilitating and killing thousands before their union came to the rescue.
Shouldn't our labor unions take up the noble cause for which they were founded: to protect the health and welfare of the workers they represent?
I do not believe in undue government intrusion in the marketplace, but there has always been a compelling public health and safety need to protect employees from dangers at work.
From child labor legislation to the asbestos laws to OSHA requirements, government has had a hand in protecting workers from unreasonable risk to life and limb on the job.
Federal, state and city workers are already protected from smoke in the workplace, as are workers in many businesses and in facilities open to the public. Laws governing these places have been enacted because government recognizes the danger and liability in allowing smoking in the workplace.
Today, only a fool would argue that smoking, either first-hand or second-hand, is not a danger to one's health and life.
The medical evidence is irrefutable: Tobacco smoke kills. It is one of the leading causes of cancer, cardiovascular disease, emphysema, birth defects, diabetes, infertility and, just recently discovered, impotency. After extended exposure, the damage can be irreversible.
It is estimated that 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related causes. That is eight times the number of Americans killed in the 20 years of the Vietnam conflict, and eight times the number killed on our highways annually.
SMOKERS may continue to smoke. We are not taking away their rights, provided that right does not violate the rights of non-smokers.
The bottom line is that tobacco-related deaths are preventable. Knowing that undeniable fact, should Oahu's elected officials bury their heads in the sand until a costly lawsuit is filed against the government (read "taxpayers") for not acting to protect the health of its citizens, when it was fully aware of the dangers of second-hand smoke in the workplace?
That would be irresponsible at best, criminal at worst. Hawaii, the "Health State," can and must do better by its own citizens.
John Henry Felix is a member of the Honolulu City Council.