Re: Bill seeks tracking of disease outbreaks

[Guest guest]

y

Oh PLEASE!

Congresswoman Berkley's office had his office contact me. They

had no clue...as their so called experts said everything was within normal

ranges...and we all know those ranges are from accurate.

Angel

On Sun, 24 Mar

2002 bherk@... wrote:

> Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 02:05:25 -0500

> From: bherk@...

> Reply-

> Sick Buildings < >

> Subject: [] Bill seeks tracking of disease outbreaks

>

> http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Mar-22-Fri-2002/news/18363905.html

>

> Friday, March 22, 2002

> Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

>

> Bill seeks tracking of disease outbreaks

> Reid, Clinton introduce legislation to probe whether clusters, environmental

> hazards linked

>

> By CHRISTINE DORSEY

> STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

>

> WASHINGTON -- Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.,

> introduced legislation Thursday to track whether clusters of cancer,

> diabetes and other chronic diseases may be linked to community environmental

> hazards.

>

> The action came after the senators convened hearings in New York, Nevada and

> Washington in the past year to investigate federal efforts to track the

> outbreaks.

>

> The measure establishes a nationwide network of federal, state and local

> health officials to compile information on chronic illnesses, environmental

> exposures and other risk factors to find out where and why the outbreaks

> occur.

>

> The Centers for Disease Control tracks infectious diseases such as AIDS, but

> not others on a systematic basis.

>

> At a news conference, Reid used the leukemia cluster in Fallon to explain

> the legislation.

>

> " They had to reinvent the wheel, " Reid said of state and federal health

> officials investigating Fallon. " They are overwhelmed with work. "

>

> Reid said without access to up-to-date water, air and land contamination

> data, officials may never figure out why 15 children from Fallon have been

> diagnosed with similar forms of leukemia since the summer of 2000. Two of

> those children have died.

>

> Scientists and health officials still don't know what caused Fallon's

> leukemia cluster, but Reid suggested it could be related to high levels of

> arsenic in local drinking water or jet fuel contamination from nearby Fallon

> Naval Air Station.

>

> Clinton, concerned about the higher-than-average number of breast cancer

> cases in a Long Island community, said immediate action is needed to prevent

> more unnecessary sickness.

>

> " Once we are able to track these diseases and detect links to environmental

> or other causes, we will be able to attack the problem and ultimately

> prevent public health problems before they occur, " Clinton said.

>

> The bill would authorize federal health agencies to spend $140 million

> annually in 2003 and 2004, and $240 million per year after 2005, to improve

> data collection and analysis with networked computer systems and more staff

> to handle the work.

>

> It also would fund five new regional " Health Centers of Excellence " and at

> least five regional " biomonitoring labs " to track health and environment

> data. An annual report would publicize the findings.

>

> In addition to the new labs, money would be used to create a national

> environmental health rapid response service to coordinate federal, state and

> local responses to disease outbreaks.

>

> Last year, Reid added $17.5 million to a health spending bill to set up the

> health tracking program in anticipation of the legislation authorizing the

> system.

>

>

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