Book ‘em, Dan-O. Olfactory Assault One.

A bill currently under consideration by the Honolulu City Council would make it illegal to bring onto city buses “odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one’s person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source.”

Under the bill, a person found in violation may be ordered to leave transit property and issued a summons or citation by a police officer. If convicted, a person could be fined up to $500, spend up to six months in jail, or be both fined and jailed. “As we become more inundated with people from all over the world, their way of taking care of their health is different,” says Councilman Rod Tam, co-sponsor of the bill. “Some people, quite frankly, do not take a bath every day and therefore they may be offensive in terms of their odor.”

Council Transportation Chairman Gary Okino is less certain. “There’s the whole issue about at what point does it become illegal. How smelly does a person have to be? Just to base things on smell, I just don’t feel good about that.”

“We are obviously concerned about laws that are inherently vague, where a reasonable person cannot know what conduct is prohibited,” says Daniel Gluck, of ACLU Hawaii, who is concerned that the bill raises constitutionality issues. “Vague laws — like the proposed ‘odor’ ban — open the door to discriminatory enforcement based on an officer’s individual prejudices. We would like everybody to be polite on city mass transit and I think that’s a good idea. But we’re not a police state.”