BILL REQ. #: S-0684.1
| State of Washington | 60th Legislature | 2007 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/15/2007. Referred to Committee on Health & Long-Term Care.
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.
If an appointed member of either the senate or the house of
representatives is unable to attend an advisory council meeting, that
member may send a designee in his or her place. The other members
shall include: The secretary of the department of health or designee;
the director of the department of ecology or designee; the director 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 director 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 human 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, 2007,
and December 1, 2008, 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, 2009.