H.C.R. No. 205 Summary

• Request Department of Health to compile studies and make recommendations for state and county legislation to protect residents from noise pollution in Hawaii.

• Department of Health must submit a report with findings, recommendations, and proposed legislation to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2020.

• Resolution notes that noise pollution causes significant health impacts including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, hearing loss, and sleep disturbance, with the World Health Organization identifying noise as the second most significant environmentally related cause of ill health.

• Federal responsibility for noise abatement transferred to state and local governments in 1981 when the EPA's Office of Noise Abatement and Control was closed.