This story has been corrected. See below
The French couple sat on Kuhio Beach, enjoying the sun and surf, surrounded by other visitors doing the same.
He was tanning, and so was she, while smoking a cigarette.
Enter Suzanne Frazer, co-founder of the Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii, also known as B.E.A.C.H., a nonprofit group that pushed for a smoking ban at Honolulu’s beach parks.
Frazer introduced herself with an "aloha," and although the couple didn’t speak much English, she held up a no-smoking poster, explaining that smoking is now prohibited on the beach behind the Duke Kahanamoku statue.
Stephane and Celine Soeur of Strasbourg, France, who were on a weeklong vacation, didn’t know about the new law.
Celine Soeur shrugged and, without much ado, put out her cigarette.
"People are misinformed," said Frazer. "Either they think it doesn’t start at all till next year, or they think that it’s just the beach and not the whole beach park."
Since July 21 a smoking ban has been in force at most Waikiki beaches, including Kuhio Beach Park, Duke Kahanamoku Beach Park and Kapiolani Beach Park, which stretches from the Kapahulu Groin to Kaimana Beach, as well as Kapiolani Park and Sandy Beach Park.
At Ala Moana Beach Park, however, smoking is prohibited only on the sandy areas — for now.
Starting Jan. 1, smoking will be prohibited at all of Honolulu’s nearly 300 parks, including all of Ala Moana Beach Park and some 4,000 bus stops. City playgrounds, tennis courts, swimming pools, botanical gardens and recreation areas also are covered.
Last month the city began putting up metal signs that read "Smoking Prohibited by Law" at beach parks where the ordinance is already in effect. The word "smoking" has also been added to the list of activities prohibited at beach parks, which at Ala Moana includes alcoholic beverages, fireworks and open fires.
Fines for smoking are $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second within the same year and $500 for the third.
To date, Honolulu police officers have issued no citations for smoking in areas where the ban is in effect, according to spokeswoman Michelle Yu.
"At this point the emphasis is on educating beach- and park-goers," she said.
Since early September, Frazer and B.E.A.C.H. co-founder Dean Otsuki and volunteers have set up informational tents at beaches around Oahu, with postcards and fliers about the new no-smoking law. They’ve also reached out to hotel operators, tour guides and lifeguards.
"Just about every smoker I’ve talked to has thought that butts were made of biodegradable materials," said Frazer. "They’re not. They are made of plastic and toxic chemicals. When that butt washes into the ocean, those chemicals leach into the water. So it’s not only a health problem, but an environmental problem."
The butts can also spend years buried under layers of sand and be washed from shore to shore.
ENVIRONMENTAL groups like B.E.A.C.H., the Surfrider Foundation and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii joined forces with the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii to push for the smoking ban at beach parks.
The reason is simple: Cigarette butts are consistently at the top of the list of items scooped up from the sand during monthly beach cleanups.
At Kakaako Waterfront Park in March, volunteers for the Surfrider Foundation Hawaii picked up litter, including about 11,000 cigarette butts, according to Hawaii coordinator Stuart Coleman. At a beach cleanup at Magic Island and Ala Moana Beach Park in August, Surfrider volunteers sifted 3,336 cigarette butts out of the sand.
"As far as our mission is concerned, it really is the health of the coastlines," said Coleman. "By numbers, cigarette butts are the most littered item at all our beach cleanups."
At a cleanup at Nanakuli, Pokai Bay and Makaha in September, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii picked up about 1,300 pounds of trash, "with cigarette butts being, once again, the No. 1 thing found during the cleanup," said Executive Director Kahi Pacarro.
B.E.A.C.H. tallied 1,805 cigarette butts picked up at Sandy Beach on Sept. 28, but collected as many as 5,228 cigarette butts on Earth Day in April 2007, when the group organized a litter prevention campaign that offered "butt holders" to smokers.
Frazer sees educating the public at beaches where the law is already in effect as a way to prevent more butts from getting into the ocean.
Between now and the end of the year, the beaches can be spared about 160,000 butts if organizations get the word out, said Frazer.
Jessica Yamauchi, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, said cigarette butts on beaches and playgrounds pose a hazard to children, who often pick them up and might ingest them.
Amanda Petel, a mother of two from San Francisco who stays at the Hilton Hawaiian Village every year with her family, welcomed the smoking ban.
"We used to come and sit on the beach, get up and move because someone was smoking," she said while visiting Duke Kahanamoku Beach. "My kids hate it. When you come on vacation, you don’t want to have to worry about it."
But nearby, smoker Fred Long of Makiki, who was picking up plastic bottles to redeem at a recycling center, said the new no-smoking law was an infringement on his civil liberties.
"It’s a dirty, filthy habit and I love it," said Long, adding he would continue to smoke by the public restrooms, where no-smoking signs recently went up. "I’ll ignore it. I’m a responsible smoker. I take care of my trash."
With a few exceptions, most people have been compliant, according to Frazer.
B.E.A.C.H. testified in support of smoke-free beaches in Hawaii as early as 2007, when Hawaii County was considering an ordinance. The Big Island banned smoking at its beaches in 2008.
On Oahu, smoking has been banned within Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve since 1993.
With the new city ordinance, Honolulu joins more than 150 other cities — from California and Washington to Massachusetts, Maine and New Jersey — that have banned beach smoking, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
The Honolulu ban comes on top of a 2006 state law that prohibits smoking in enclosed and partially enclosed areas as well as within 20 feet of doorways. The University of Hawaii at Manoa recently announced it would ban tobacco use and e-cigarettes on campus starting Jan. 1.
On the Net:
» Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii: www.b-e-a-c-h.org/smoke-free-beaches
» Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii: www.tobaccofreehawaii.org
» Surfrider Foundation Oahu: oahu.surfrider.org
» Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii: schawaii.org
» Department of Parks and Recreation: www1.honolulu.gov/parks
CORRECTION: Beach Environmental Awareness Coalition Hawaii co-founder Suzanne Frazer said 160,000 cigarette butts could be prevented from being littered on the beach before the end of the year, not 120,000 as reported on Page G1 Sunday. Also, on Earth Day in April 2007, the group organized a campaign that collected 5,228 cigarette butts, not 5,288, Frazer said.
