[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 453 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 453

To study the high rate of cancer among children in Dover Township, New 
                    Jersey, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 17, 1997

    Mr. Torricelli (for himself and Mr. Lautenberg) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                       Labor and Human Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To study the high rate of cancer among children in Dover Township, New 
                    Jersey, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Michael Gillick Childhood Cancer 
Research Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) during the period from 1980 to 1988, Ocean County, New 
        Jersey, had a significantly higher rate of childhood cancer 
        than the rest of the United States, including a rate of brain 
        and central nervous system cancer that was nearly 70 percent 
        above the rate of other States;
            (2) during the period from 1979 to 1991--
                    (A) there were 230 cases of childhood cancer in 
                Ocean County, of which 56 cases were in Dover Township, 
                and of those 14 were in Toms River alone;
                    (B) the rate of brain and central nervous system 
                cancer of children under 20 in Toms River was 3 times 
                higher than expected, and among children under 5 was 7 
                times higher than expected; and
                    (C) Dover Township, which would have had a nearly 
                normal cancer rate if Toms River was excluded, had a 49 
                percent higher cancer rate than the rest of the State 
                and an 80 percent higher leukemia rate than the rest of 
                the State; and
            (3)(A) according to New Jersey State averages, a population 
        the size of Toms River should have 1.6 children under age 19 
        with cancer; and
            (B) Toms River currently has 5 children under the age of 19 
        with cancer.

SEC. 3. STUDY.

    (a) In General.--The Administrator of the Agency for Toxic 
Substances and Disease Registry shall conduct dose-reconstruction 
modeling and an epidemiological study of childhood cancer in Dover 
Township, New Jersey.
    (b) Grant to New Jersey.--The Administrator may make 1 or more 
grants to the State of New Jersey to carry out subsection (a).

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act--
            (1) $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1998; and
            (2) $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1999 and 2000.
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