HB0680ham001 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Environment & Energy Committee

Filed: 3/14/2007

09500HB0680ham001 LRB095 03973 KBJ 33203 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 680

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 680 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Biomonitoring Safety Net Act.

Section 5. Findings and purposes.

(a) The General Assembly finds all of the following:

(1) An estimated 100,000 chemicals are registered for use today in the United States. Another 2,000 chemicals are added each year.

(2) Some toxicological screening data exists for only 7% to 10% of these chemicals. More than 90% of these chemicals have never been tested for their effects on human health. Large numbers of these chemicals are found in cosmetics, personal care products, pesticides, food dyes, cleaning products, fuels, and plastics.

(3) As a result, people are exposed to chemicals daily. Many of these chemicals persist in the environment or accumulate and remain in body fat and have been shown to be toxic.

(4) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented the presence of 148 environmental chemicals in the blood and urine of Americans of all ages and races.

(b) The purposes of this Act are as follows:

(1) for the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health, to conduct an environmental contaminant biomonitoring feasibility study that proposes the best way to monitor the presence and concentration of designated chemicals in the bodies of the people of this State;

(2) to produce biomonitoring studies that provide data helping scientists, researchers, public health personnel, and community members explore linkages between chemical exposure and health concerns; and

(3) to support Illinois public health by establishing trends in chemical exposures, validating modeling and survey methods, supporting epidemiological studies, identifying highly exposed communities, addressing the data gaps between chemical exposures and specific health outcomes, informing health responses to unanticipated emergency exposures, assessing the effectiveness of current regulations, and setting priorities for reform.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Agency" means the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

"Department" means the Department of Public Health.

"Program" means the Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program.

Section 15. Scientific Guidance Panel. In implementing the Program, the Department and the Agency shall establish a Scientific Guidance Panel. The Directors of the Department and the Agency shall appoint the members of the Panel. The Panel shall be composed of 11 members, whose expertise shall encompass the disciplines of public health, epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental medicine, risk analysis, exposure assessment, developmental biology, laboratory sciences, bioethics, maternal and child health with a specialty in breastfeeding, and toxicology. Members shall be appointed for 2-year terms. Members may be reappointed for additional terms without limitation. Members shall serve until their successors are appointed and have qualified. Vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments, and any member so appointed shall serve during the remainder of the term for which the vacancy occurred. The Panel shall meet, at a minimum, 3 times per year. The Agency shall be responsible for staffing and administration of the Panel. Members of the Panel shall be reimbursed for travel and other necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties under this Act, but shall not receive a salary or compensation.

The Panel shall provide guidance to the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health, and make recommendations regarding the design and implementation of the feasibility study, including specific recommendations for chemicals that are priorities for biomonitoring. The Panel shall recommend priority chemicals for inclusion in the Program using all of the following criteria:

(1) The degree of potential exposure to the public or specific subgroups, including, but not limited to, certain occupations.

(2) The likelihood of a chemical being a carcinogen or toxicant based on peer-reviewed health data, its chemical structure, or the toxicology of chemically related compounds.

(3) The limits of laboratory detection for the chemical, including the ability to detect the chemical at levels low enough to be expected in the general population.

(4) Any other criteria the Panel deems significant.

The Panel may recommend additional designated chemicals not included in the National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals for inclusion in the Program using all of the following criteria:

(A) Exposure or potential exposure to the public or specific subgroups.

(B) The known or suspected health effects resulting from some level of exposure based on peer-reviewed scientific studies.

(C) The need to assess the efficacy of public health actions to reduce exposure to a chemical.

Section 20. Feasibility study report. Two years after the effective date of this Act, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health, shall submit a report to the Governor and the General Assembly containing findings of the feasibility study and shall include in the report recommended activities and estimated costs of establishing an Illinois Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program.".