Restaurant, workplace
smoking ban appears dead

The governor and the Health
Department supported the bill

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

A proposed statewide smoking ban for restaurants and workplaces appears snuffed out.

Senate Health Committee Chairman David Matsuura (D, South Hilo) said yesterday that the bill likely will not clear the necessary committees in the Senate by Friday, the deadline when bills must be in their final committees.

A companion bill in the House (HB2522) is stalled.

The Senate bill (SB2780), part of Gov. Ben Cayetano's administrative package, would have expanded smoking prohibitions to public and private workplaces, restaurants and bars within restaurants to protect nonsmokers against secondhand smoke. The bill calls for a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation.

Nightclubs, hotel rooms and outside bars would not have been affected.

Support for the bill came from the Health Department, Hawaii Medical Service Association, American Heart Association and the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii.

Pat McCain of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, who spoke against the measure, told lawmakers Friday that he has seen "No Smoking" signs a few feet away from ashtrays at the state Capitol.

Matsuura said he agreed with the criticism that the Legislature should practice what it preaches before it dictates smoking prohibitions at other workplaces.

"We're going to try and handle it within our Legislature body first," Matsuura said. "For me it goes against my principle for us to be outlawing it at someplace else, telling everyone to clean up their place, and we don't have our own place cleaned up."

Matsuura said the Capitol smoking ban is not a popular idea with some legislative staff, but a move is under way by legislative leaders to address the smoking concerns.

The House is moving a bill (HB1774), authored by House Majority Floor Leader Marilyn Lee, that will make the state Capitol a smoke-free building.

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