- The ARC - California Edition -

An Editorial About Legislation

Society must alter its ways if the human race is ever going to prevent what we call mental retardation, or brain damage, or developmental disability, or whatever we call unnecessary brain impairment.

Perhaps it can be successfully debated that society does not have all the answers to the cause and effect of brain development, deterioration, and injury. But there is an array of answers that are known to clearly have the potential of preventing damage to the human brain. Yet as a collective group of human beings, our society usually gives little priority to adopting a real meaningful preventive course of action.

This issue of The Prevention News focuses on legislation. Legislation is the formal way that actions get mandated in our society. The outcome of votes taken in Sacramento, California can mean life and death to residents throughout our state, and in terms of primary prevention, it can mean that a program or law does or does not get established to prevent some cases of brain injury.

The reason this state has a program to screen newborns for phenylketonuria, galactosemia, and hypothyroidism is because if we know which babies have disorders, they can be treated before the damage has occurred. This year, senate bill 537 (Greene) proposed to consider a number of additional disorders for the newborn screening program. It has not yet been approved. The legislators need to hear your opinion about why this prevention program is important to you.

Similarly, we know that if swimming pools are built to keep unsupervised young toddlers out of the pool, we can save lives and reduce the numbers of brain-damaged surviving toddlers. Senate bill 813 could provide an incentive to pool owners to modify their existing pools to add a barrier system which keeps young kids out.

On the other side of the coin, helmets have been clearly proven to be brainprotectors. The legislators are hearing from motorcycle riders who don't like to wear helmets, but they are not hearing from those who recognize the wisdom of preventing brain damage.

Get involved today. Educate your legislator about the need for primary prevention.

- Peter Leibert, editor