HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0013.310 2002-2004 RECr_i`,~N~
July 22, 2003 ilme..._
To: Members of the County Council ~oumy Councl
From: Kim Rowe
Keaukaha Resident, Mother of five,Ex-bartender/waitress, Father and Grandmother died of cancer
Directly linked to smoking.
Re: Banning smoking from restaurants and bars in Hawaii County
Dear Members,
If you are reading this it means I had to leave to attend an important meeting regarding a pollution issue
in my neighborhood. It is an air pollution problem, I have an asthmatic son who is very affected and when
I found what was in the vacinity I was surprised. My son, having apre-existing disease, is reacting not
only to the light industrial surrounding our neighborhood, but also to mobile sources . We do not monitor
our exaust here in paradise, lending to very high sulfur dioxide rates(along with carbon monoxide and
particulate matter) eventually we will succumb to omne pollution as have other backward counties in our
country.
I am now a self proclaimed expert on lungs and their function or lack of, having saved my son's
life,over and over, too numerous to count (he's only seven now, but without his treatments and preventative
med's he would have died many times).
I worked my way through college, bartending and waitressing to get by. But I also succumbed to the
cigarette and smoked while at work (everybody else did) on and off for years even....after I had watched
my father suffer through bladder cancer and die (the doctors said it was from washing nicotine and tar
down his throat for years with coffee).
My Grandmother owned a bar at one time and waitressed for years and years. She smoked and worked
in a smoke filled environment and she spent her last ten years on oxygen for her emphysema.
In looking at my neighborhood's issue, I teamed that our island has more asthma than the rest of the
country. And then I learned that Hawaiian's have more asthma than our other races on this island (my
neighborhood is mostly Hawaiian). Secondhand smoke is homble for asthmatics. If an asthmatic goes to
work in the restaurantlhotel industry, will they want to pick up their peers habits? More than likely. How
many days aze your Hawaiian restauraM/bar workers missing due to respiratory problems caused directly
by their working environment?
Do we honestly want to expose our local residems to toxins they didn't ask for while simply working or
living? I don't think so.
Smoke in your car and at home, but NOT in public spaces.
Sincerely, ~J `
A wife, mom, ghter, granddaughter and service worker. Comm. NO. I~
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