Senate Bill S6166

                                BILL NUMBER:S6166

TITLE OF BILL:  An act making an appropriation for Children's Environ-
mental Health Centers

PURPOSE: To appropriate the sum of one million dollars.or so much there-
of as may be necessary, to the Children's Environmental Health Centers
out of the general fund.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: Section one lists the legislative
intent.

Section two appropriates one million dollars so much thereof as may be
necessary, to the Children's Environmental Health Centers out of the
general fund and subjects those monies to audit and warrant by the comp-
troller on vouchers certified or approved by Children's Environmental
Health Centers in the manner provided by law.

Section three contains the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION: Environmental factors are becoming more common in affect-
ing children's health in New York State, Diseases in children that are
caused by exposures to toxic chemicals and other health threats in the
environment are rising in New York State. Examples of the diseases
caused by environmental hazards are the following:

              

* Lead poisoning affects more than 2,000 children in New York each year
and produces loss of intelligence, disruption of behavior, and shorten-
ing of attention span. These effects last lifelong.

* Asthma has tripled among children in New York State.

* Developmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder,
dyslexia and cognitive impairment affect one in every six children born
in New York. Among the known environmental causes are lead, mercury,
PCSs, and organophosphate insecticides.

* Incidence of leukemia and primary brain cancer in New York's children
has increased by over 30% since the 1970s.

* Childhood obesity has tripled in the last three decades, and type II
diabetes, previously unknown among children, is now epidemic.

* The diseases caused by toxic hazards in the environment are enormously
expensive. Across the United States, pediatric disease of environmental
origin is estimated to cost $76 billion each year.  Given that New York
has approximately 8% of the nation's children, this national figure
translates to an estimated cost each veer in New York State of $6
billion.

* 90% of New York State pediatricians report that they commonly see
children with diseases of environmental origin. Yet only 20% of these
pediatricians have received training in environmental medicine.

* Previously -- from 2006 to 2010 -- the New York State Legislature
established. a statewide network of Centers of Excellence in Children's
Environmental Health, but the program was terminated in the budget
crisis of 2010.  The need for these funds has become even more pressing
because rates of disease of environmental origin in children have
continued to rise.

Trained pediatricians are in place and are ready to staff Children's
Environmental Health Centers. These Centers will help the children of
New York and be highly cost effective. If these Centers succeed in
preventing only 5 of the disease that is caused in New York's children
by toxic exposures in the environment, they will save our State many
millions of dollars each year.

These academic health centers included Mount Sinai, Stony Brook State
University, New York Medical College in Valhalla, SUNY Albany and the
University of Rochester. To promote efficiency, most Centers of Excel-
lence in Children's Environmental Health were co-located in institutions
that also had Centers of Excellence in Occupational Medicine.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: None.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: One Million Dollars.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.