COM 0942.146 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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VIA E-MAIL TO: Council Chairman Pete Hoffmann & Council Members y Hawaii County Council 2008 APR 18 PSI 12 5 RE: WRITTEN TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF BILL 224 r' Relating To Smoking in Certain Places in the County of HSUwaiii Motion to Reconsider and Override Veto, Public Hearing Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Testimony of Professor Mark A. Levin in support of Bill 224, Relating to Smoking in Certain Places in the County of Hawai'i Chair Hoffman and Council Members: Aloha. My name is Mark Levin. I am an Associate Professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law. One of my principal areas of study is comparative tobacco law and policy - particularly regarding Japan. I have published in the Stanford Law & Policy Review, the international medical journal Tobacco Control, and worked as a temporary advisor on tobacco control policy for the World Health Organization. Locally, I have served on the Governing Board of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai'i and I am presently Vice Chair of the State of Hawai'i Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund Advisory Board. My testimony today is submitted based upon my research and personal opinions and not on behalf of any organization or entity. At the outset, I hope I can illustrate to you how Japan is no longer the smoky place that it used to be. For example: ® The percentage of Japanese who smoke has fallen for over ten straight years. Less than one quarter of Japan's entire population now smokes tobacco. ® Consumption of cigarettes in Japan plummeted over 15 percent just since 2002. ® Japan's government was one of the world's first to ratify its obligations under the global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty. ® Japan is changing at lightning speed towards strict regulation relating to smoking. ® There are even smoke-free beaches in Japan. Any visitor to Japan today will see non-smoking areas have become the norm in airports, railways, public buildings, many private businesses (including restaurants, some bars, and countless other workplaces), and private homes. One example of rapid change is taxis since late 2006, smoke-free taxis rules leaped from a being a quirky item in rural Oita to cover over 60%a of the nation's taxis, including all of the Tokyo metropolitan area. While social norms have been one engine for change, Japan's legislators have taken action as well. Japan's first nationwide law to prevent tobacco smoke exposure became effective in May 2002. The changes in Japan's tobacco control landscape in the Comm No. 94LA Ref. To.. r:esea" Ref. Date APR 2 2 2002