[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5669 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5669

To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the poison center 
 national toll-free number, national media campaign, and grant program 
  to provide assistance for poison prevention, sustain the funding of 
 poison centers, and enhance the public health of people of the United 
                                States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 1, 2008

 Mr. Towns (for himself and Mr. Terry) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the poison center 
 national toll-free number, national media campaign, and grant program 
  to provide assistance for poison prevention, sustain the funding of 
 poison centers, and enhance the public health of people of the United 
                                States.

    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 ``Poison Center Support, Enhancement, 
and Awareness Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Poison centers are the primary defense of the United 
        States against injury and deaths from poisoning. Twenty-four 
        hours a day, the general public as well as health care 
        practitioners contact their local poison centers for help in 
        diagnosing and treating victims of poisoning. In 2007, more 
        than 4 million calls were managed by poison centers providing 
        ready and direct access for all people of the United States, 
        including many underserved populations in the United States, 
        with vital emergency public health information and response.
            (2) Poisoning is the second most common form of 
        unintentional death in the United States. In any given year, 
        there will be between 3 million and 5 million poison exposures. 
        Sixty percent of these exposures will involve children under 
        the age of 6 who are exposed to toxins in their home. Poisoning 
        accounts for 285,000 hospitalizations, 1.2 million days of 
        acute hospital care, and more than 26,000 fatalities in 2005.
            (3) In 2008, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center 
        reported that poisonings from accidents and unknown 
        circumstances more than tripled in rate since 1990. In 2005, 
        the last year for which data are available, 26,858 people died 
        from accidental or unknown poisonings. This represents an 
        increase of 20,000 since 1990 and an increase of 2,400 between 
        2004 and 2005. Fatalities from poisoning are increasing in the 
        United States in near epidemic proportions. The funding of 
        programs to reverse this trend is needed now more than ever.
            (4) In 2004, The Institute of Medicine, of the National 
        Academies recommended that the ``Congress should amend the 
        current Poison Control Center Enhancement and Awareness Act 
        Amendments of 2003 to provide sufficient funding to support the 
        proposed Poison Prevention and Control System with its national 
        network of poison centers. Support for the core activities at 
        the current level of service is estimated to require more than 
        $100 million annually.''.
            (5) Sustaining the funding structure and increasing 
        accessibility to poison control centers will promote the 
        utilization of poison control centers and reduce the 
        inappropriate use of emergency medical services and other more 
        costly health care services. The 2004 Institute of Medicine 
        Report to Congress determined that for every $1 invested in the 
        Nation's poison centers $7 of health care costs are saved. In 
        2005, direct Federal health care program savings totaled in 
        excess of $525 million as the result of poison center public 
        health services.
            (6) More than 30 percent of the cost savings and financial 
        benefits of the Nation's network of poison centers are realized 
        annually by Federal health care programs (estimated to be more 
        than $1 billion), yet Federal funding support (as demonstrated 
        by the annual authorization of $30.1 million in Public Law 108-
        194) comprises less than 11 percent of the annual network 
        expenditures of poison centers.
            (7) Real-time data collected from the Nation's certified 
        poison centers can be an important source of information for 
        the detection, monitoring, and response for contamination of 
        the air, water, pharmaceutical, or food supply.
            (8) In the event of a terrorist event, poison centers will 
        be relied upon as a critical source for accurate medical 
        information and public health emergency response concerning the 
        treatment of patients who have had an exposure to a chemical, 
        radiological, or biological agent.

SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF POISON CENTERS NATIONAL TOLL-FREE NUMBER.

    Section 1271 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d-71) 
is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 1271. MAINTENANCE OF THE NATIONAL TOLL-FREE NUMBER.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall provide coordination and 
assistance to poison centers for the establishment of a nationwide 
toll-free phone number, and the maintenance of such number, to be used 
to access such centers.
    ``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated $2,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2009 
to carry out this section; and $1,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2010 through 2014 for the maintenance of the nationwide toll-free phone 
number under subsection (a).''.

SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON 
              CENTER UTILIZATION.

    (a) In General.--Section 1272 of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 300d-72) is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 1272. NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON CENTER 
              UTILIZATION.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall carry out, and expand upon, 
a national media campaign to educate the public and health care 
providers about poison prevention and the availability of poison center 
resources in local communities and to conduct advertising campaigns 
concerning the nationwide toll-free number established under section 
1271(a).
    ``(b) Contract With Entity.--The Secretary may carry out subsection 
(a) by entering into contracts with a nationally recognized 
organization in the field of poison control for the development and 
implementation of a nationwide poison prevention and poison center 
awareness campaign, which may include the development and distribution 
of poison prevention and poison center awareness materials; television, 
radio, Internet, and newspaper public service announcements; and other 
means of public and professional awareness and education.
    ``(c) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall--
            ``(1) establish baseline measures and benchmarks to 
        quantitatively evaluate the impact of the nationwide media 
        campaign carried out under this section; and
            ``(2) prepare and submit to the appropriate congressional 
        committees an evaluation of the nationwide media campaign on an 
        annual basis.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $600,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2000 through 2005, such sums as may be necessary for each of the 
fiscal years 2006 through 2009, and $1,500,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2010 through 2014.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall be 
effective as of the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply 
to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2009.

SEC. 5. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE POISON CENTER GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 1273 of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 300d-73) is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 1273. MAINTENANCE OF THE POISON CENTER GRANT PROGRAM.

    ``(a) Authorization of Grant Program.--The Secretary shall award 
grants to poison centers certified under subsection (c) (or granted a 
waiver under subsection (d)) and professional organizations in the 
field of poison control for the purposes of preventing, and providing 
treatment recommendations for, poisonings and complying with the 
operational requirements needed to sustain the certification of the 
center under subsection (c).
    ``(b) Additional Uses of Grant Funds.--In addition to the purposes 
described in subsection (a), a poison center or professional 
organization awarded a grant under such subsection may also use such 
grant for the following purposes:
            ``(1) To establish and evaluate best practices in the 
        United States for poison prevention, poison center outreach, 
        and emergency and preparedness programs.
            ``(2) To research, develop, implement, revise, and 
        communicate standard patient management guidelines for commonly 
        encountered toxic exposures.
            ``(3) To improve national toxic exposure surveillance by 
        enhancing cooperative activities between poison centers in the 
        United States and the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention.
            ``(4) To develop, support, and enhance technology and 
        capabilities of professional organizations in the field of 
        poison control to collect national poisoning, toxic occurrence, 
        and related public health data.
            ``(5) To develop initiatives to foster the enhanced public 
        health utilization of national poison data collected by 
        organizations described in paragraph (4).
            ``(6) To support and expand the toxicologic expertise 
        within poison centers.
            ``(7) To improve the capacity of poison centers to answer 
        high volumes of calls and respond during times of national 
        crisis or other public health emergencies.
    ``(c) Certification.--Except as provided under subsection (d), the 
Secretary may make a grant to a poison center under subsection (a) only 
if--
            ``(1) the center has been certified by a professional 
        organization in the field of poison control, and the Secretary 
        has approved the organization as having in effect standards for 
        certification that reasonably provide for the protection of the 
        public health with respect to poisoning; or
            ``(2) the center has been certified by a State government, 
        and the Secretary has approved the State government as having 
        in effect standards for certification that reasonably provide 
        for the protection of the public health with respect to 
        poisoning.
    ``(d) Waiver of Certification Requirements.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary may grant a waiver of the 
        certification requirement of subsection (c) with respect to a 
        noncertified poison center that applies for a grant under this 
        section if such center can reasonably demonstrate that the 
        center will obtain such a certification within a reasonable 
        period of time as determined appropriate by the Secretary.
            ``(2) Renewal.--The Secretary may renew a waiver under 
        paragraph (1).
            ``(3) Limitation.--In no instance may the sum of the number 
        of years for a waiver under paragraph (1) and a renewal under 
        paragraph (2) exceed 5 years. The preceding sentence shall take 
        effect as of the date of the enactment of the Poison Center 
        Support, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008.
    ``(e) Supplement Not Supplant.--Amounts made available to a poison 
center under this section shall be used to supplement and not supplant 
other Federal, State, or local funds provided for such center.
    ``(f) Maintenance of Effort.--A poison center, in utilizing the 
proceeds of a grant under this section, shall maintain the expenditures 
of the center for activities of the center at a level that is not less 
than the level of expenditures maintained by the center for the fiscal 
year preceding the fiscal year for which the grant is received.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section--
            ``(1) for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2004, 
        $25,000,000;
            ``(2) for each of the fiscal years 2005 through 2009, 
        $27,500,000; and
            ``(3) for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2014, 
        $35,000,000, of which $1,500,000 shall be used to award grants 
        for the purpose described in subsection (b)(4).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall be 
effective as of the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply 
to grants made on or after January 1, 2009.
                                 <all>