[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           WOMEN'S HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS RESEARCH ACT

                                 ______


                          HON. ELIZABETH FURSE

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 28, 1996

  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, today's introduction of the Women's Health 
Equity Act is extremely important. This landmark legislation holds much 
promise for the women of our great Nation.
  I authored one piece of it, the Women's Health Environmental Factors 
Research Act, and will introduce it soon as its own free-standing bill. 
This act calls for the National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences to do two things. First, NIEHS is to compile a status report 
on what we already know about the effects on women's health of 
environmental exposure and then, NIEHS is to outline a research agenda 
to fill in the gaps.
  We need more information about the impact of certain environmental 
factors on women's health. Breast cancer, immune dysfunction, and other 
women's health issues may be partially the result of environmental 
factors.
  Many chemicals in our environment today are compounds that mimic 
human estrogen. For many years, risk assessment research inadvertently 
excluded gender-specific problems from the studies. It is quite 
possible that some chemicals affect women differently than men.
  We must put women's health research back into the equation.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Women's Health 
Environmental Factors Research Act, as well as the entire Women's 
Health Equity Act.

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