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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0732.001 2008-2010 EMILY/. N4EOLE- BE4SON t;','; Phone (8081 965-2712 ! 'ice Chair o.• Fat (Yl6F)9G5 -2 S0' .° : ` \�Id ; limnl enaeole'a •co ;rowan In us Council ()ulna 5 \\ " 6. _ Business address 71r,'M�`� 15 -2662 Pahoa - Pelage Road ....-._ Palma Marketplace. Thom 104 Pahoa. Haxat i 96778 County of Hawai Office of the County Clerk ,HailingAddress r , a 25 alum Street 1ldn. Hau'at'i 96720 �) c Telephone (808) 961-8255 Ct7 Fatstntt(e f808i 961 -5912 lJ ri' - - 7 C!1 Date: March 15, 2010 •1•0: •1 \roshimoto. Chair w And Members of the County Council �? From: Emily 1. Naeole - Beason, Vice Chair Subject: information related to Bill 216; Relating to Prohibiting Smoking in Vehicles When There is a Minor Present Please lind attached Ibr the council's review some supporting information about smoking legislation dealing with this issue. Et; B/rh Alt Comm. No. - 7 3 1 Ref. To: VIRSEDL- I Serving the Interests nnite People of Our Island Ref. Dote Hawn, '' County is an Equal Oppornonn Provuler and Enip/ut cr US STATES THAT BAN SMOKING IN CARS WITH MINORS California, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana. Maine and Alaska are stales that prohibit smoking in cars while minors are present. In Connecticut, a ban on smoking in cars just introduced in the legislature was the brainchild of Justin Kvadas of East Hartford, who was 9 and riding home from his Tae Kwon Do class last year when the idea struck him. Washington State is also considering a ban. At least 14 other legislatures have introduced bills to ban smoking in vehicles in the last six months. The number of heart attacks fell by 27 percent in Pueblo, CO, in the 18 months following the enactment of the city's smoke lrec air law, according to a 2006 study. American Lung Association State of Tobacco Control 2006 Report Smokefi•ee Air DANGERS OF SECOND HAND SMOKE IN CARS The ban on smoking in cars was created to protect children who are particularly vulnerable to the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke. The level of air pollution in a car caused by smoke from a cigarette is so severe that breathing it is dangerous for anyone. Children breathe quicker than adults; they are still developing physically and have little or no control over their indoor environments. As a result, children exposed to secondhand smoke run a greater risk of damaging health effects. On June 27, 2006, the Surgeon General released a major report on involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke. concluding that secondhand smoke causes disease and death in children and nonsmoking adults. 1 le determined that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, especially in the closed environment of a car, studies have shown that even with a window rolled down, it takes mere seconds of a lit cigarette for the air quality inside a vehicle to vastly exceed the levels deemed too hazardous to breathe by the Environmental Protection Agency. Inip_' w\cu sin'eca 4 ?hhrarvrsecnu(lhand.mnke; HOW DANGEROUS IS SMOKING IN CARS? Doctors have found the fine particles released from cigarette smoking can cause or irritate asthma. bronchitis. pneumonia, ear infections and cause permanent damage to children's health. According to the EPA, secondhand smoke causes 31.000 asthma attacks in children each year and an estimated 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths annually are linked with exposure to secondhand smoke. Children who breathe secondhand smoke on a regular basis are at a higher risk for middle car infections. Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause asthma in children who have never previously shown any symptoms. 13abies and children younger than age 6 who are exposed to secondhand smoke regularly are more likely to get respiratory track infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. On January 26. 2006, the California Air Resources Board declared secondhand smoke a "toxic air contaminant" putting it in the same category as car exhaust and asbestos. Because children's lungs are still developing and their breathing rate is faster than adults. children may breathe at a rate three times that San adult. Breathing in harmful particles released by cigarette smoking can be very harmful to their lungs. In 1p.:: N p tr.arb ca Co) I hA ICStp' luClsheelels.pd i • Neil Klepsis. a health scientist with Stanford University, attached sensors to the dashboard of a small car and to a child's car seat in the back seat ofthc car. The sensors were used to show how many particle pollutants were produced when a volunteer lit up a cigarette, while sitting in the driver's seat of the car, with all the windows closed. The demonstration showed that within 20 seconds there were enough particles in the car's front seat to result in an "unhealthy" environment. After only a minute. the levels of particles in the front seat were 30 times the "unhealthy" level. The number of particles reached 10 times the limit deemed "hazardous` by the Environmental Protection Agency in the back seat. The readings from the sensors still resulted in an "unhealthy" reading even after the windows were rolled down and the cigarette extinguished. ({V. Ott, N. Klepeis, and P. Switzer, Air Change Rates of Motor Vehicles and In- Vehicle Pollutant Concentrations from Secondhand Smoke. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, 2007) Stanford University researchers studied how smoking affects air quality at places like sidewalk cafes and park benches. The researchers found that a nonsmoker sitting a few feet downwind from a smoldering cigarette is likely to be exposed to substantial levels of contaminated air. More than 4.000 chemicals have • been identified in secondhand tobacco smoke. At least 250 are known to be harmful. and 50 of these are known to cause cancer. Imp 'mete < - sen ier stan lircd edu:Tpr /2007: pr -mnoke -05090 7 M ail "Smoke -free Cars with Kids: A Scientific Demonstration of Secondhand Smoke Exposure" produced by the California Tobacco Control Program. This cutting edge demonstration measures the dangerously high levels of tine particulate matter in a car with someone smoking and discusses the damaging health effects secondhand smoke has on children. It was conducted to announce the implementation of California's Smoke -free Cars with Minors law. Additional links to support this amendment • http:// ww _cdc.govitohacco /sgrisgr /index.htm littp://www.arttea.QOVAOXICsletsilactsheetets.pdf toxics/ets'lactsheetets.pdf http://www.surizeongencral.uovIlihrarvisecondhandsmokei http : / /news- service.stanlord_edu nc\%s/20 117 /mavy smoking- 050907.hunl littn://news-service.stanlord.eduiprI20071pr-smoke-050907.html http; // vww. cancer_ ov/e ancertopiesit actsheet/Tobaeeo /E'IS lutp uo vine wsrel/nr012606.1um • • htgx%hc\v\c.surgeongeneral.uov /G brnry /second handsmohcr • •