The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a 2002 survey that studied airports throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Julian Lipsher of the state Health Department's tobacco prevention and control program today said Hawai'i airports can do more to protect passengers and workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Lipsher said designated smoking areas now allow smokers to light up among nonsmokers. So passengers find themselves leaving a smoke-free airplane, jetway and gate only to enter a semi-enclosed area where smokers have congregated.

"When residents and visitors get off the plane, they are exposed to warm breezes, the smell of plumeria, jet fuel and tobacco smoke," Lipsher said.

The federal report concluded that "increased adoption and enforcement of smoke-free policies are needed to protect the health of workers and travelers at U.S. airports."

On Kaua'i, the American Cancer Society has received complaints from residents and travelers having to walk through smokers, said Kaua'i executive director Mary Williamson. She said the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Kaua'i has filed formal complaints with the state ombudsman's office about airports in Honolulu and Lihu'e.

Williams said the airports have improved in recent years, setting aside enclosed smoking areas and changing the recorded announcement to steer people to the smoking areas. Before that, Williamson said, the announcement would welcome travelers to a purportedly smoke-free airport and then say there were smoking areas.

But Williamson and other non-smokers would like to see Hawai'i's airports join the 61 percent nationwide that are smoke-free from cabin to curb. "They need to do more," she said. "There are places where travelers still have no choice but to walk through smoking areas. That adds insult to injury to our clients who are cancer patients headed to O'ahu for daily radiation treatment."

Williamson said officials want to be accommodating, even to smokers, but they forget 70 to 80 percent of people are non-smokers. "Everybody has a right to clean air especially when they're in a public place," she said.

The federal agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that larger airports were less likely to be smoke-free, yet they handle 70 percent of all airline travelers.

Because secondhand smoke is a known carcinogen, exposure for workers who remain in the environment for hours is a big concern. In 2002, the report said that 1.9 million workers had jobs at U.S. airports, and more than 1.9 million passengers per day passed through these airports.

"As a result of heightened security following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, travelers and airline employees are spending more time in and around U.S. airports and might now be at greater risk for prolonged exposure," the report said.

For more information, see www.cdc.gov.