CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Deborah Zysman successfully lobbied lawmakers for passage of the state's smoking ban.

Zysman gets heat for smoking ban

When Deborah Zysman's mother lost an aunt to lung cancer, she warned Zysman to stay away from cigarettes.

"My mom was always very anti-tobacco, I think because when I was little she lost her favorite auntie to lung cancer at a very young age, when she was 40," recalls Zysman. "When I was growing up, my mom just said, 'I will not go through that again.'"

The message apparently stuck.

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Zysman, 31, went on to earn a master's degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More recently she was instrumental in pushing for passage of the state's smoking ban as executive director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii.

The law, which celebrated its first year last month, prohibits smoking in all public places, including restaurants, bowling alleys and malls. It also made it illegal to light up in partially enclosed areas, bars and less than 20 feet from doorways and windows.

But shortly after the law took effect in November 2006, bar owners who complained they were losing customers partly blamed Zysman for their losses. They lobbied lawmakers in the spring to repeal or at least change the law so that it would permit smoking in some establishments.

The campaign ultimately failed for the session, but not before it turned ugly.

One flier distributed by a coalition of smoking proponents labeled Zysman "Hawaii's Most Wanted." Zysman later got a restraining order against one of her principal critics.

"We expected some kind of push back," said, recalling her staff even considered adding more security to their office. "I think the personal attacks ... I didn't necessarily anticipate."