HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

195

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

urging the designation of all areas of the state capitol as a smoke-free workplace.

 

 

WHEREAS, smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 430,700 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly; and

WHEREAS, smoking costs the United States approximately $97,200,000,000 each year in health care costs and lost productivity; it is directly responsible for eighty-seven per cent of lung cancer cases and causes most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis; and

WHEREAS, smoking is also a major factor in coronary heart disease and stroke; it may be causally related to malignancies in other parts of the body and has been linked to a variety of other conditions and disorders, including slowed healing of wounds, infertility, and peptic ulcer disease; and

WHEREAS, smoking during pregnancy accounts for an estimated twenty to thirty per cent of low-birth weight babies, up to fourteen per cent of pre-term deliveries, and ten per cent of all infant deaths; and

WHEREAS, smoking by parents is also associated with a wide range of adverse effects in their children, including exacerbation of asthma, increased frequency of colds and ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome; and

WHEREAS, secondhand smoke involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers from other people's cigarettes is classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a known human (Group A) carcinogen, responsible for approximately three thousand lung cancer deaths annually in American nonsmokers; and

WHEREAS, female smokers aged thirty-five years or older are twelve times more likely to die prematurely from lung cancer than nonsmoking females, with more American women dying annually from lung cancer than any other type of cancer; and

WHEREAS, tobacco advertising plays an important role in encouraging young people to begin a lifelong addiction to smoking before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risk, with an estimated 4.5 million American teenage cigarette smokers; approximately ninety per cent of smokers begin smoking before the age of twenty-one; and

WHEREAS, workplaces nationwide are going smoke-free to provide clean indoor air and protect employees from the life-threatening effects of secondhand smoke; a 1992 Gallup poll showed that ninety-four per cent of Americans believe companies should either ban smoking totally in the workplace or restrict it to designated areas; and

WHEREAS, a smoke-free State Capitol would set a good example for our children and reflect our respect for one of Hawaii's architectural highlights; and

WHEREAS, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung and Heart Associations, and the Coalition for a Smoke Free Hawaii have endorsed designating the State Capitol a smoke-free workplace; and

WHEREAS, although current law provides that smoking is prohibited in all areas open to the public and reception and waiting areas of state owned buildings, the law is unenforced; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, the Senate concurring, that the Governor and the Department of Accounting and General Services are requested to designate the State Capitol as a completely smoke-free building with appropriate "No Smoking" signs to be posted and existing ashtrays removed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor is requested to enforce existing law that prohibits smoking in public areas of state-owned buildings; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and to the Comptroller.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Smoke-free Workplace; State Capitol