HR0703 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0703 LRB095 13609 KBJ 39307 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, More than 11 million Americans currently suffer from food allergies; from 1997 to 2002, the number of children with food allergies doubled; and

WHEREAS, Food allergies kill as many as 200 Americans and send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year; and

WHEREAS, For some children, even a small drop of milk left on a shopping cart from another child's snack can trigger life-threatening anaphylaxis; and

WHEREAS, The average school has 10 children suffering from severe food allergies; the most common allergens include peanuts, eggs, milk, fish, and wheat, which are nearly impossible to avoid completely at schools; and

WHEREAS, Scientists believe that a cure can be found for most allergies by using existing science that has been developed to treat asthma, airborne allergens, and venom from bee stings, and they believe that a cure could be found within a decade; and

WHEREAS, Severe food allergies disqualify individuals from military service eligibility; the growing incidence of food allergies could significantly decrease the pool of qualified candidates to serve in our armed forces; and

WHEREAS, Only $10 million is spent annually for allergy research by the National Institutes of Health, while research for attention deficit disorder gets $107 million a year and research for diabetes gets $1.2 billion a year; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that that the United States Congress should increase funding to the National Institutes of Health for research to discover a cure for food allergies to benefit individuals and society as a whole; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to each member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.