Council shows support of public health

Congratulations to the City Council members on their passage of the bill to extend clear indoor air workplace standards to restaurants.

Secondhand smoke is a central issue to all of us who are concerned about public health. With so many adolescents and young adults employed in the restaurant industry, this ordinance is about protecting their future and their right to breathe clean air.

The passage of this bill, along with the large portion of the tobacco settlement funds devoted to health, demonstrates that the elected officials of Hawaii are committed to the health of their people. At the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Hawaii, we are working to develop world-class research on tobacco that will be a cornerstone of our state's new medical school.

I look forward to continued improvement in the health of the people of Hawaii.

Jay Maddock
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences
John A. Burns School of Medicine
University of Hawaii at Manoa

Banning smoking fits with a higher plan

Thank you, Mayor Jeremy Harris, for taking a positive step in the banning of cigarette smoking in restaurants.

People should realize that if God intended for us to smoke, he/she would have installed chimneys in our heads.

John Delee
Pearl City

[Quotables] "People are depressed." Keith Kamita Hawaii Narcotics Enforcement Division administrator, on the increase in prescription drug abuse since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Experts say layoffs, financial problems and depression triggered by the attacks have cause some isle residents to turn to pharmaceutical drugs to cope with their problems. "If you're addicted to something, price doesn't matter. You might complain about the price, but you're not going to quit." Mark George Smoker, explaining why a higher tax on cigarettes will not deter him and others from the habit. The state might increase the cigarette tax by 20 percent.

China coverage is thorough, insightful

I spent five weeks this past summer studying in China and Hong Kong on a Fullbright-Hays Summer Seminar for Teachers. I learned a great deal, but when I returned, I was concerned as to how well my students and I could keep up with current events in China.

The Star-Bulletin has been the solution to my dilemma. The frequent and factual news reports, coupled with the insightful editorials and commentaries, provide thorough, thoughtful and thought-provoking coverage of contemporary China.

After his recent trip to the People's Republic, President Bush would be well served if a copy of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin were among his briefing papers.

Claire McCaffery Griffin
Social Studies Department Chairman
Sacred Hearts Academy

Courageous father died with true dignity

Consideration of the bill to allow doctor-assisted suicide brought back memories of my father's final days. The cancer that ate up my father was extremely painful. This is one of my fond remembrances.

It was a cool September day in Seattle when we went out for one of his last breakfasts at his favorite Denny's Restaurant. He wanted to treat us, although his pain was extreme.

In his youth and middle age he was a strong tugboatman who crossed the Pacific to Hawaii and made many more trips on ocean-going tugs. It pained me greatly to watch this man, stripped to the frailty that cancer suffers upon those it kills. I cannot fathom the pain or the discomfort that I know wracked him.

Did he talk about doctor assisted death? Death with dignity? No, unselfishly, he wanted to know how we were and how breakfast was. His desire was to live life as he once did, with dignity and self-respect.

I hold him today in high esteem. I pray that I would have his strength should I face the same trial at the end of life that he did. He brought dignity to death by living as fully as he could to his last breath. I know, for my hand was on his thin chest as that last breath was drawn and life was gone. The tears in his eyes at that moment marked his death with dignity.

Frank A. McCafferty

Safeguards could shorten quarantine

It is disappointing to see James Nakatani, chairman of the Board Of Agriculture, so distort the facts on the proposed changes to Pet Quarantine presented by the Community Quarantine Reform Coalition (Letters, Feb. 16).

No one wants rabies here, and no one has proposed to abolish the quarantine. We propose that those pets with microchip identification, two rabies vaccinations, a blood test and health certificate be allowed to enter Hawaii with no quarantine period, as they are proven to be rabies free.

A 1996 study done by Hawaii Quarantine showed the 30-day quarantine with vaccinations and blood test was four times safer than the old 120-day quarantine. The study also extended the calculation for zero-day quarantine and found no significant difference. Those that do not pass our rigorous requirements must be quarantined until they do pass up to 120 days.

Of the 120 million pets in the U.S. in 2000, there were 114 cases of rabies in dogs and 249 cases in cats. Very few had any history of vaccination. That means three in 1 million pets contracted rabies. No pets have caused a human rabies case since 1979, and that dog was thought to be unvaccinated.

We ask that Sen. Jan Buen bring Senate Bill 2667 before her Agriculture Committee and have open discussions and hearings with veterinarians, legislators and pet owners. We need to put politics aside and move forward on this issue.

Tom Molloy
Haiku

Is 911 too busy to take emergency calls?

One day while traveling on Piikoi Street and turning left into Kapiolani Boulevard, I saw a city bus enter a crosswalk in which a pedestrian was walking across the street. The driver stopped less than three feet from the woman. I picked up my cell phone to call the police and was on hold for at least 10 minutes. By then I was at my destination and could no longer hold, so I hung up. I thought at the time that it was a good thing I wasn't trying to report something more serious.

Another day, while driving westbound on the H-1, I saw a woman walking on the freeway near the Pearl City exit. I dialed 911 and was on hold until I reached Wahiawa.

I hope I never have a life-or-death emergency. I'd die waiting for the lines to stop being busy.

Robin Makapagal

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