House lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban smoking at all of the state’s public beaches.

Laws banning smoking at nearly 300 parks and roughly 4,000 bus stops around Oahu took effect on Jan. 1. Hawaii County parks, beaches and recreational facilities have been smoke-free since 2008, supporters of a ban said at a hearing Wednesday at the state Capitol.

Stuart Coleman, Hawaii coordinator of the Surfrider Foundation, urged members of the House’s Water and Land Committee and Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs Committee to build upon the county bans.

"It would be just an amazing thing if you all could take the lead on this and just have a policy across the state where we ban smoking on beaches," he said.

Coleman said a couple of hundred Maui high school students volunteering around the island collected more than 14,000 cigarette butts in less than two hours as part of a recent "Hold onto your butts" beach cleanup event the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation helped organize.

"The problem is pretty pervasive," he said. "Cigarette butts are the most littered item that we find at every single beach cleanup and that’s not only on Oahu, (and) all the islands, but that’s across the country and across the world."

Also submitting testimony in favor of House Bill 325 were the Sierra Club, state Department of Health, Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, volunteers from the Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii and several community members.

Suzanne Frazer, vice president of B.E.A.C.H., told lawmakers that the chemicals that seep into the air and ocean from discarded butts endanger children and marine life. In addition, she said, a cigarette butt is made of plastic, which is not biodegradable.

"It lasts forever," she said.

Teresa Parsons of Kailua attended the hearing to voice support for the ban. She told legislators that in addition to being concerned about the number of cigarette butts she’s picked up, she gets frustrated when a person sits down near her at the beach and lights up.

"My issue is that the beach is not an ashtray, and that’s exactly how it’s being used by many people," Parsons, a retired nurse who now works part time at the University of Hawaii nursing school, said after the hearing.

The Hawaii Smokers Alliance was not present at the hearing but turned in written testimony opposing the ban.

"This type of outdoor smoking ban has already proven to be an unenforceable and bigoted failure on the Big Island and Oahu," wrote Michael Zehner, the group’s co-chairman. Zehner called the bill a "shameless attack" on county home rule because the Kauai County Council voted against a bill to ban smoking at beaches in August 2012.

"Let the counties decide for themselves," he said.

The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii testified that 76 percent of respondents to a poll conducted by Qmark agreed or strongly agreed with Oahu’s smoking ban, and 86 percent of respondents in Hawaii County continue to support that island’s ban. Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen (D, Waipahu-Royal Kunia-Makakilo), a member of the Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, asked the coalition to provide the committee with additional details regarding the survey.

Water and Land Committee Chairwoman Cindy Evans (D, Kaupulehu-Waimea-Halaula) indicated she intends to recommend that the bill pass out of committee but set decision-making for Friday to give the committee time to draft a more clear definition of "beach."

Members of the Water and Land Committee also heard testimony Wednesday regarding a bill that would allow restrained dogs in state parks in designated areas that have access to the shoreline, and would limit the state’s liability.

Department of Land and Natural Resources Director William Aila testified that the measure is unnecessary because DLNR already implements administrative rules that allow leashed dogs in state parks under certain conditions. Evans deferred the measure indefinitely.