HB4067 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB094 11616 RSP 42747 b

94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2005 and 2006
HB4067

Introduced 2/28/2005, by Rep. Karen May

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Children's Environmental Health Office Act. Provides that, subject to appropriation, the Illinois Department of Public Health shall create and maintain the Children's Environmental Health Office within the Department to advise the Agency and assess how various environmental and other conditions impact the health of children. Requires the Office to review various cancer risk assessment guidelines to establish guidance values that address carcinogenic exposures to the fetus and to infants and children. Sets forth requirements for this assessment. Requires the Office to finalize and publish children's cancer guidelines based upon their findings. Provides that the Office shall review and assess children's contaminant exposures and health risks at existing and proposed school sites. Requires the Office to report annually as to the results of its findings on school contaminants and to report biannually to the Governor and to the General Assembly concerning its activities.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning safety.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Children's Environmental Health Office Act.

Section 5. Children's Environmental Health Office. Subject to specific appropriations for this purpose, the Illinois Department of Public Health shall create and maintain the Children's Environmental Health Office as an entity within the Department. The Office shall:

(1) serve as the chief advisor to the Director of the Department of Public Health and to the Governor on matters within the jurisdiction of the Department relating to environmental health and environmental protection concerning children;

(2) assist the boards, departments, and other offices within the Department in assessing the effectiveness of statutes, rules, and programs designed to protect children from environmental hazards; and

(3) coordinate, within the Department and with other State agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, regulatory efforts, research and data collection, and other programs and services that impact the environmental health of children, and coordinate with appropriate federal agencies conducting related regulatory efforts and research and data collection.

(4) designate a person to lead and coordinate these efforts.

Section 10. Children's cancer guidelines.

(a) On or before January 1, 2007, the Office shall review existing State and federal cancer risk assessment guidelines, as well as new information on carcinogenesis, consider the extent to which those guidelines address risks from exposures occurring early in life, and establish cancer potence values or numerical health guidance values that address carcinogenic exposures to the fetus and to infants and children.

(b) The review shall also include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) The development of criteria for identifying carcinogens likely to have a greater impact if exposures occur early in life.

(2) The assessment of methodologies used in existing guidelines to address early-in-life exposures.

(3) The construction of a database of animal studies to evaluate increases in risks from short-term early-in-life exposures.

(d) On or before June 30, 2006, the Office shall finalize and publish a children's cancer guideline that is based upon the review required under this Section and that is protective of children's health. These guidelines shall be revised and updated at least every 3 years thereafter, or as needed by the Office.

Section 15. School contaminants review.

(a) On or before January 1, 2007, the Office shall review and assess contaminant exposures and health risks at existing and proposed school sites. This school contaminants review shall identify those chemical contaminants commonly found at school sites and determined by the Office to be of greatest concern based on criteria that identify child-specific exposures and child-specific physiological sensitivities. The Office shall consult with other departments within the Agency and with the Department of Public Health and the State Board of Education in conducting the school contaminants review required under this Section.

(b) The school contaminants review shall include, but not be limited, to, all of the following:

(1) Appropriate child-specific routes of contaminant or other health risk exposure unique to the school environment, in addition to those in existing exposure assessment models.

(2) Appropriate available child-specific numerical health effects guidance values and plans for the development of additional child-specific numerical health effects guidance values.

(3) The identification of uncertainties in the risk assessment guidance and those actions that should be taken to address those uncertainties.

(c) On or before June 30, 2006, and on or before June 30 of each year thereafter, the Office shall finalize and provide to the public, to State and local environmental and public health agencies, and to school districts, the results of its findings on school contaminants and its recommendations for protecting children's health. The school contaminants report shall including numerical values for the 5 most dangerous school site contaminants. The report shall include suggestions for remediating identified contaminants from schools.

Section 20. Reports. On and after January 1, 2007, and biannually thereafter, the Office shall report to the General Assembly and the Governor concerning its activities. The report shall include, but not be limited to: (i) information on revisions or modifications made by the Office and other entities within the Department to cancer potence values; (ii) school contaminant health risk values; and (iii) other numerical health guidance values. The report shall also describe the use of the revised health guidance values in the programs and activities of the Office and the Department.