S-4234.1  _______________________________________________

                SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6356

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington   57th Legislature        2002 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Franklin, Winsley, Fairley, Shin, Regala, Kline, Costa, Poulsen, Rasmussen, Keiser, Deccio, Kohl‑Welles, Kastama, Prentice, Eide, McAuliffe, Parlette, Fraser, Long and Jacobsen)

READ FIRST TIME 02/12/2002.

Creating the children's environmental health and protection advisory council.

    AN ACT Relating to the children's environmental health and protection advisory council; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that children in the state face many preventable exposures to environmental hazards in their schools, homes, and communities.  In certain cases children are at greater risk than adults for exposure to and possible illness from environmental hazards.  This is due in part to their behaviors but also to their decreased ability to detoxify certain substances due to the immaturity of their body organs and immune systems.

    The legislature further finds that higher rates of poverty place children of ethnic and minority communities at disproportionate risk for environmental exposures due to inadequate housing, poor nutrition, and limited access to health care.  Solutions to complex environmental health problems require the ongoing communication, collaboration, and cooperation of affected communities.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  As used in this act, "environmental hazard" means one or a group of toxic chemical, biological, or physical agents in the environment, resulting from human activities or natural processes, that may impact the health of exposed children, including such pollutants as lead, pesticides, air pollutants, contaminated drinking water, polluted waters, toxic waste, polychlorinated biphenyls, secondhand tobacco smoke, and industrial and home chemicals.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  (1) The children's environmental health and protection advisory council is created.

    (2) Membership of the advisory council shall consist of fifteen members.  The president of the senate shall appoint one member of the majority party and one member of the minority party.  The speaker of the house of representatives shall appoint one member from each party.  The other members shall include:  The secretary of the department of health or designee; the secretary of the department of ecology or designee; the secretary of the department of agriculture or designee; the superintendent of public instruction or designee; the secretary of the department of social and health services or designee; the secretary of the department of labor and industries or designee; one member of the state board of health; one tribal representative, appointed by the governor; one licensed pediatric health care provider with expertise in the field of children's environmental health, appointed by the governor; one parent or guardian whose child has been clinically diagnosed with exposure to an environmental health hazard, appointed by the governor; and an expert in the field of environmental toxicology, appointed by the governor.

    (3) Members of the advisory council shall serve without compensation.

    (4) The board of health shall provide staff support and administrative assistance to the advisory council.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  The advisory council shall:

    (1) Meet at least four times a year;

    (2) Review and comment on existing laws, rules, regulations, and standards to ensure that they adequately protect the health of children from environmental hazards;

    (3) Work collaboratively with state agencies and others without duplicating current work in this area; and

    (4) Report to the governor and the legislature by December 1, 2003, and December 1, 2004, with recommendations on changes in regulation that would reduce children's exposure to environmental hazards and recommendations for collaborative approaches to public education.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.  The state board of health may solicit, accept, and spend gifts, grants, bequests, devises, and other funds from public and private sources to fund the activities of the children's environmental health and protection advisory council created under section 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.  This act expires June 30, 2005.

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