[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2932 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.2932
One Hundred Tenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday,
the third day of January, two thousand and eight
An Act
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 control 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 control centers for help
in diagnosing and treating victims of poisoning. In 2007, more than
4,000,000 calls were managed by poison control 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 3,000,000 and 5,000,000 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, 1,200,000 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 Academy
of Sciences recommended that ``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
control centers $7 of health care costs are saved. In 2005, direct
Federal health care program savings totaled in excess of
$525,000,000 as the result of poison control center public health
services.
(6) More than 30 percent of the cost savings and financial
benefits of the Nation's network of poison control centers are
realized annually by Federal health care programs (estimated to be
more than $1,000,000,000), yet Federal funding support (as
demonstrated by the annual authorization of $30,100,000 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
control 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 control 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 CONTROL 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 control 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 is authorized to be
appropriated $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 to carry out this section,
and $700,000 for each of 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
CONTROL 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 CONTROL 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
control 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 one or more public or private
entities, including nationally recognized organizations in the field of
poison control and national media firms, for the development and
implementation of a nationwide poison prevention and poison control
center awareness campaign, which may include--
``(1) the development and distribution of poison prevention and
poison control center awareness materials;
``(2) television, radio, Internet, and newspaper public service
announcements; and
``(3) other activities to provide for 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) on an annual basis, prepare and submit to the appropriate
committees of Congress, an evaluation of the nationwide media
campaign.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section, such sums as may be necessary
for fiscal year 2009, and $800,000 for each of fiscal years 2010
through 2014.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall be
effective on 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 CONTROL 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 CONTROL CENTER GRANT PROGRAM.
``(a) Authorization of Program.--The Secretary shall award grants
to poison control 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 Funds.--In addition to the purposes
described in subsection (a), a poison center or professional
organization awarded a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement under
such subsection may also use amounts received under such grant,
contract, or cooperative agreement--
``(1) to establish and evaluate best practices in the United
States for poison prevention, poison control 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 control 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 control centers; and
``(7) to improve the capacity of poison control centers to
answer high volumes of calls and respond during times of national
crisis or other public health emergencies.
``(c) Certification.--Except as provided in subsection (d), the
Secretary may award a grant to a poison control 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 requirements of subsection (c) with respect to a
noncertified poison control 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 case 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
control 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 control 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 is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section, $27,500,000 for fiscal year
2009, and $28,600,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014. The
Secretary may utilize not to exceed 8 percent of the amount
appropriated under this preceding sentence in each fiscal year for
coordination, dissemination, technical assistance, program evaluation,
data activities, and other program administration functions that do not
include grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements under subsections
(a) and (b), which are determined by the Secretary to be appropriate
for carrying out the program under this section.''.
(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.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.