A bill that would ban smoking at all 293 city parks and beaches gained preliminary approval Tuesday from the City Council Public Safety and Economic Development Committee.
Bill 25 (2013) comes on the heels of a measure signed into law by Mayor Kirk Caldwell earlier this month that bans smoking at seven East Honolulu beach parks.
The committee Tuesday amended the bill so that it would not take effect until Jan. 1. The change was made to address concerns raised by city Parks Director Toni Robinson that her agency would not have enough time to educate the public and put up the signs necessary to enforce the ban.
Robinson reiterated remarks made earlier by Caldwell supporting the idea of a smoking ban at all city parks and beaches.
Representatives from the Coalition for Tobacco Free Hawaii, the Outdoor Circle and Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawai‘i testified in support of the bill, citing health and litter concerns.
All promised to help educate the public about an islandwide ban and the benefits it would have for the city.
Dean Otsuki, a BEACH co-founder, said his parents died from forms of cancer often associated with smoking — his father died of complications from emphysema, and his mother died of lung cancer.
Otsuki said smoking prohibitions often encourage smokers to quit. A close friend, he said, stopped smoking cigarettes "because she found it was too much of a hassle trying to find places to smoke."
Michael Zehner, co-chairman of the Hawaii Smokers Alliance, was not at the hearing, but told the Star-Advertiser that the bill erodes the civil liberties of everyone, not just smokers.
"Ultimately, they don’t want just beaches and parks, they want every street and sidewalk, every golf course, every campsite, every park, even people’s homes, and this is just another step toward that," Zehner said in an interview.
City attorneys said the ordinance banning smoking at the seven East Honolulu beaches is flawed and cannot be enforced at six of them unless the law is amended to allow the city to institute a no-smoking prohibition on state-owned property, even when there is a city park on it.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson, who introduced Bill 25, said his bill includes wording that would fix that glitch.
Anderson said given that the new law had to be tinkered with anyway, he introduced Bill 25 so the ban could be applied islandwide.
"If we’re going to have a smoking prohibition in the City and County of Honolulu at our city parks, rather than protect public health at just a few city parks, then maybe we should really protect public health at all of our public parks," Anderson told his colleagues Tuesday.
Anderson had been the only member of the Council to vote against the East Honolulu smoking ban, and he had tried unsuccessfully to change the bill at the last minute to have it apply islandwide.
Council Public Safety Chairwoman Carol Fukunaga also moved out Bill 24 (2013), which would fix the language allowing enforcement of the ban at the seven East Honolulu parks without expanding the ban throughout Oahu.
The seven parks are Sandy Beach Park, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Beach Park, Kuhio Beach Park, three sections of Kapiolani Park, and the beach side of Ala Moana Regional Park.
