A bill that would ban smoking in and around Hawaii Public Housing Authority units is headed for passage by the state Legislature.
On Tuesday a House-Senate conference committee agreed on the measure, which proposes prohibiting smoking within 20 feet of buildings, entrances and exits, windows and ventilation systems and in all federal and state public housing units, community facilities and common areas such as roofs, halls, sidewalks, lobbies, stairways basements, gardens, parking areas and more.
A House version of the proposal died in the Senate earlier this session, but the Senate had already revived a 2013 bill and sent it over to the House for consideration.
Sen. Josh Green, chairman of the Senate Health Committee and introducer of the bill, contends that decreasing smoking is an important public health policy.
"In general I think the state should take a very firm stance against smoking in any public setting, including public housing, because it affects the health of the smokers, and secondhand smoke affects other individuals around them, including children," Green (D, Naalehu-Kailua-Kona), an emergency room physician, said Thursday. "It’s a very clear public health priority for me to diminish smoking statewide, and this (bill) is, as far as I’m concerned, a reasonable piece of that policy."
Now that conference committee members have found common ground on the bill, the draft will go to both chambers for final approval. The measure would take effect upon Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s approval.
The state came close to enacting a public-housing smoking ban in 2012, but the housing agency asked Abercrombie to veto the bill to give the agency more time to implement a ban as part of its administrative rules, HPHA Executive Director Hakim Ouansafi said earlier this year. At that time, Ouansafi said the authority was still working on drafting its own smoking ban but that he wouldn’t mind if the state were to pass a law as well.
The authority confirmed Tuesday it is nearing the next step in the rule-drafting process, in which it will send the proposed rules to Abercrombie for approval.
In the proposed rules, public-housing occupants could have their leases terminated after four violations, whereas Senate Bill 651 proposes booting out noncompliant residents upon their third violation. State statute, however, would trump the authority’s administrative rules. Both proposals factor in violations committed by tenants’ guests.
The bill would authorize but not mandate the authority to create smoking areas in locations that would ensure secondhand smoke does not enter any unit. It would mandate the authority to place and maintain "No smoking" signs at all housing project entrances and exits but would leave additional signage locations up to the agency.
Smoking would be defined as "inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted or heated tobacco product or plant product intended for inhalation in any manner or in any form."
The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii and state Department of Health have testified in support of the measure and cited the U.S. surgeon general’s recommendation that any level of secondhand smoke can be detrimental to a person’s health.
