STAND. COM. REP. NO. 767

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1030

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1030, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Increase the minimum age for persons who may purchase tobacco products or electronic smoking devices from eighteen to twenty-one years of age;

     (2)  Amend the definition of "electronic smoking device" as used in section 709-908, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS); and

     (3)  Define "tobacco product" as used in section 709-908, HRS.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, University of Hawaii System, University of Hawaii Student Health Advisory Council, Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, and thirty-eight individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Smokers Alliance and seventeen individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the use of e-cigarettes is prevalent among adolescents in Hawaii.  According to recent figures from six Hawaii high schools, among the ninth and tenth grade students, twenty-nine percent have used e-cigarettes at least once and eighteen percent use them regularly.  This sample's rate of e-cigarette use is considerably higher than rates in current studies of adolescents in other areas of the United States.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1030, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

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GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair