HB5985 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB093 19518 BDD 45258 b

93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2003 and 2004
HB5985

Introduced 2/6/2004, by Tom Cross

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

20 ILCS 2305/2

from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 22

Amends the Department of Public Health Act. Makes technical changes in a Section concerning the powers of the Department.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT in relation to public health.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Department of Public Health Act is amended by changing Section 2 as follows:

(20 ILCS 2305/2) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 22)

Sec. 2. Powers.

(a) The State Department of Public Health has general supervision of the interests of the health and lives of the people of the State. It has supreme authority in matters of quarantine, and may declare and enforce quarantine when none exists, and may modify or relax quarantine when it has been established. The Department may adopt, promulgate, repeal and amend rules and regulations and make such sanitary investigations and inspections as it may from time to time deem necessary for the preservation and improvement of the public health, consistent with law regulating the following:

(1) Transportation of the remains of deceased persons.

(2) Sanitary practices relating to drinking water made accessible to the public for human consumption or for lavatory or culinary purposes.

(3) Sanitary practices relating to rest room facilities made accessible to the public or to persons handling food served to the public.

(4) Sanitary practices relating to disposal of human wastes in or from all buildings and places where people live, work or assemble.

The provisions of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act are hereby expressly adopted and shall apply to all administrative rules and procedures of the Department of Public Health under this Act, except that Section 5-35 of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act relating to procedures for rule-making does not apply to the adoption of any rule required by federal law in connection with which the Department is precluded by law from exercising any discretion.

All local boards of health, health authorities and officers, police officers, sheriffs and all other officers and employees of the state or any locality shall enforce the rules and regulations so adopted.

The Department of Public Health shall conduct a public information campaign to inform Hispanic women of the high incidence of breast cancer and the importance of mammograms and where to obtain a mammogram. This requirement may be satisfied by translation into Spanish and distribution of the breast cancer summaries required by Section 2310-345 of the Department of Public Health Powers and Duties Law (20 ILCS 2310/2310-345). The information provided by the Department of Public Health shall include (i) a statement that mammography is the most accurate method for making an early detection of breast cancer, however, no diagnostic tool is 100% effective and (ii) instructions for performing breast self-examination and a statement that it is important to perform a breast self-examination monthly.

The Department of Public Health shall investigate the causes of dangerously contagious or infectious diseases, especially when existing in epidemic form, and take means to restrict and suppress the same, and whenever such disease becomes, or threatens to become epidemic, in any locality and the local board of health or local authorities neglect or refuse to enforce efficient measures for its restriction or suppression or to act with sufficient promptness or efficiency, or whenever the local board of health or local authorities neglect or refuse to promptly enforce efficient measures for the restriction or suppression of dangerously contagious or infectious diseases, the Department of Public Health may enforce such measures as it deems necessary to protect the public health, and all necessary expenses so incurred shall be paid by the locality for which services are rendered.

(b) Subject to the provisions of subsection (c), the Department may order a person to be quarantined or isolated or a place to be closed and made off limits to the public to prevent the probable spread of a dangerously contagious or infectious disease, including non-compliant tuberculosis patients, until such time as the condition can be corrected or the danger to the public health eliminated or reduced in such a manner that no substantial danger to the public's health any longer exists.

(c) No person may be ordered to be quarantined or isolated and no place may be ordered to be closed and made off limits to the public except with the consent of the person or owner of the place or upon the order of a court of competent jurisdiction. To obtain a court order, the Department, by clear and convincing evidence, must prove that the public's health and welfare are significantly endangered by a person with a dangerously contagious or infectious disease including non-compliant tuberculosis patients or by a place where there is a significant amount of activity likely to spread a dangerously contagious or infectious disease. The Department must also prove that all other reasonable means of correcting the problem have been exhausted and no less restrictive alternative exists.

(d) This Section shall be considered supplemental to the existing authority and powers of the Department and shall not be construed to restrain or restrict the Department in protecting the public health under any other provisions of the law.

(e) Any person who knowingly or maliciously disseminates any false information or report concerning the existence of any dangerously contagious or infectious disease in connection with the Department's power of quarantine, isolation and closure or refuses to comply with a quarantine, isolation or closure order is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

(f) The Department of Public Health may establish and maintain a chemical and bacteriologic laboratory for the examination of water and wastes, and for the diagnosis of diphtheria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malarial fever and such other diseases as it deems necessary for the protection of the public health.

As used in this Act, "locality" means any governmental agency which exercises power pertaining to public health in an area less than the State.

The terms "sanitary investigations and inspections" and "sanitary practices" as used in this Act shall not include or apply to "Public Water Supplies" or "Sewage Works" as defined in the Environmental Protection Act.

(Source: P.A. 91-239, eff. 1-1-00.)