Posted on: Thursday, December 23, 2004

State's airports smoker friendly

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

State policies intended to accommodate foreign travelers have landed Hawai'i's airports among the nearly 40 percent nationwide that have been found to expose passengers and workers to tobacco smoke.

State Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said state airport policy tries to minimize second-hand smoke by designating enclosed smoking areas clustered near the international terminal. Smoking also is permitted in open-air areas and in bars.

But he noted the importance of accommodating the tourism industry in Hawai'i.

"We do have a lot of overseas visitors, particularly Japanese tourists, who like to smoke," he said. If smoking was banned throughout the airport, travelers who had already spent hours on a plane unable to smoke would have to wait even longer, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday released a 2002 survey that studied airports throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 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."

Julian Lipsher of the state Health Department's tobacco prevention and control program agreed that 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.

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 Tobacco-Free Kaua'i coalition 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 those areas. Before that, William-son said, the announcement would welcome travelers to a purportedly smoke-free airport and say there were smoking areas.

But Williamson and other nonsmokers 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 that nearly 86 percent of people in Hawai'i are nonsmokers. "Everybody has a right to clean air, especially when they're in a public place," she said.

Ishikawa said the designated smoking areas were set aside to help prevent people from smoking curbside and in breezeways where they mingle with nonsmokers.

"We're trying to strike a balance," he said.

The state's first assistant ombudsman, Donna Woo, said her office received four complaints about smoking in airports since 2001, one in Honolulu, one in Lihu'e and two on Maui.

She said her agency's role is to make sure that state agencies are complying with rules and laws so other complaints about enforcement likely go to other officials.

She said her office investigates the complaints it gets and can suggest changes. For example, on Maui she said the designated smoking area was legal but prevailing winds blew smoke at airport employees nearby. So, Woo said the area was moved after her office looked into the problem.

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report expressed concern about workers and passengers. "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.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.