[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 113 (Monday, September 12, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9925-S9926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM AWARENESS DAY

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, by raising awareness one moment at a 
time, we can minimize the harm that drinking during pregnancy causes 
our most vulnerable population--our children.
  In February of 1999, a small group of parents, raising children 
afflicted with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, set out to change the 
world. That small group started an ``online support group'' which 
quickly became a worldwide grassroots movement to observe September 9 
as International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day. Former 
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle was instrumental in having the 
Senate take notice of this important issue.
  This year for the seventh consecutive year, communities across the 
Nation are pausing at the hour of 9:09 a.m. to acknowledge this day.
  Events are occurring in cities and towns not just across the country, 
but around the world--from Chilliwack, British Columbia to Cape Town, 
South Africa to Madagascar--families are joining together today to 
raise awareness of fetal alcohol syndrome disorders or FASD.
  My State of Alaska will observe this day with solemn events in 
Anchorage, Juneau, Kenai, and Fairbanks.
  FASD is an umbrella term that describes a range of physical and 
mental birth defects that can occur in a fetus when a pregnant woman 
drinks alcohol. It is a leading cause of nonhereditary mental 
retardation in the U.S. Many children affected by maternal drinking 
during pregnancy have irreversible conditions--including severe brain 
damage--that cause permanent, lifelong disability.
  FASD is 100 percent preventable. Prevention merely requires a woman 
to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.
  Yet every year in America, an estimated one in every 100 babies born 
are born with FASD--that's 40,000 infants. FASD affects more children 
than Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and muscular dystrophy 
combined.
  The cost of FASD is high--more than $3 billion each year in direct 
health care costs, and many times that amount in lost human potential. 
Lifetime health costs for an individual living with FASD averages 
$860,000.
  The indirect financial and social costs to the Nation are even 
greater--including the cost of incarceration, specialized health care, 
education, foster care, job training and general support services.
  All in all, the direct and indirect economic costs of FASD in the 
U.S. are estimated to be $5.4 billion.
  You can find FASD in every community in America--native, non-native, 
rich, poor--it doesn't discriminate. That is why, last February, the 
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona

[[Page S9926]]

again issued another advisory to pregnant women, or women who plan to 
become pregnant, to completely abstain from all alcohol use.
  In Alaska, I am troubled to report that we have the highest rate of 
FASD in the Nation. Approximately 163 Alaskan babies are born each year 
affected by maternal alcohol use during pregnancy. Among our native 
communities, the rate of FASD is 15 times higher than non-Native areas 
in the state.
  And again, FASD is 100 percent preventable. We can save so many 
children and families so much heartache simply by increasing people's 
awareness of what FASD is and how we can prevent it. In fact, 
prevention of FASD is seven times more cost effective than treating the 
disorder.
  That is why Senator Tim Johnson and I--and several others from both 
sides of the aisle--will soon be introducing legislation to direct more 
resources toward this terrible problem. The ``Advancing FASD Research, 
Prevention, and Services Act'' will--develop and implement targeted 
state and community-based outreach programs; improve coordination among 
Federal agencies involved in FASD treatment and research by 
establishing stronger communication with these programs, and improve 
support services for families and strengthen educational outreach 
efforts to doctors, teachers, judges and others whose work puts them in 
contact with people with FASD.
  Forty-thousand American children a year are born with FASD. Our 
investment today in prevention, treatment and research will save 
countless in future health costs of this devastating but completely 
preventable disorder. I ask my colleagues to support the Advancing 
FASD, Research, Prevention and Services Act.
  On Fetal Alcohol Awareness Day, we remember all innocent babies 
inflicted with this disorder and imagine the potential that they could 
have been but for the damage done by alcohol.
  I hope that we will continue to pause in the ninth hour of the ninth 
day each September until fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are 
eradicated.

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