Posted on: Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Big Island smoke ban to be debated further

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A proposed smoking ban that would extend to bars and nightclubs will be the subject of public hearings on the Big Island this year.

The Hawai'i County Council decided yesterday that the hearings will be conducted by the Human Services and Economic Committee in at least Kona and Hilo and probably elsewhere.

The decision came after two hours of testimony, with most speakers in favor of the measure, which would be the strictest in the state. The council adopted a partial smoking ban in restaurants in 1983 when it also outlawed smoking in public buildings.

Those opposed were restaurant and bar operators who fear loss of business and a Puna resident who worries about her personal choice being taken away.

Louis Santiago said a restaurant he owns in Waimanalo suffered a 70 percent loss of business when the Honolulu ban was imposed. He said he feared his interests on the Big Island will suffer, too.

Jose "Pepe" Romero, who operates a Hilo bar known as Uncle Mikey's video dance club, said he is concerned about the loss of business and the economic effect on his 40 employees.

Frances Harriman of Puna, 70, said she has been smoking since was 14 and does not believe the claims of adverse health effects.

"They are treating this like demon smoke, like they did the demon rum in the 1920s," she said.

Janice Pakele, Hawai'i County director of the Department of Liquor Control, urged the council to improve definitions in the draft bill, citing ambiguity she sees in sections relating to outdoor facilities in hotels.

Clifford Chang, director of the statewide Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai'i, said he doubts merchants will lose customers if the ban is passed. He said there was no widespread failures of drinking establishments in California when a ban on smoking was imposed there. In some instances, business picked up because non-smokers felt comfortable going to a bar or nightclub.

The council members said they were concerned about negative effects on businesses, but Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead, who introduced the bill, said she has greater concerns for safety in the workplace. She said she learned about the health problems for workers during seven years as a waitress in Honolulu while attending college.

Councilman Curtis Tyler of Kona said he leans toward passage of the measure to help maintain a healthy work environment and to advance the concept of making the county "the healing island," as advocated by Mayor Harry Kim and others.

Councilman-elect Dr. Fred Holschuh urged passage. He is a member of the coalition and other health groups but said he was testifying as an individual yesterday.

He rejected the idea that such bans will harm tourism, citing a study of bans reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that concluded there was no loss of business in restaurants after smoking bans and that in some cases there were sales increases of up to 30 percent.