AB63 (Ducheny, Battin, Zettel) Office of
Binational Health

Southern California has high rates of a number of communicable diseases including tuberculosis, hepatitis A and most childhood diseases. Prevention of these diseases is often hampered by the movement of infectious cases across the border.

In the southern counties (Los Angeles, San Diego, and Imperial) foreign-born patients comprise 30% of the reported Tuberculosis cases. The New River in Imperial County has been identified as being the most polluted in the nation. Periodically there are outbreaks of mercury poisoning and hepatitis A which underscores the need for better notification systems between the United States and Mexican health authorities.

AB63 would create a state Office of Binational Health to facilitate cooperation between California and Mexican health officials and health professionals to reduce the risk of disease in the California border region.


AB1400 (Honda) Childhood Lead Poisoning

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there are thousands of lead-poisoned children in California who have not received intervention services. Existing law requires that the state Department of Health Services implement a Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. This bill would implement a screening component for this effort.

AB1400 would authorize and fund the establishment of ten 1-year pilot programs to screen children for elevated blood lead levels.


SB148 (Alpert) Health Care Coverage:
Phenylketonuria

For 35 years, the state of California has been screening newborns for a metabolic disorder known as Phenylketonuria or PKU. The prevalence of this condition is about 1 case in every 20,000 births.

When an infant is born with this condition, the amino acid phenylalanine accumulates in it’s body fluids which results in progressive damage to the brain. The treatment requires eliminating foods naturally high in protein, and maintaining a protein-restricted diet through adolescence, or even longer. This diet of special food products is expensive.

SB148 would mandate that health care service plan contracts involving hospital, medical, or surgical expenses include coverage for the testing and treatment of Phenylketonuria.


SB493 (Figueroa) Taxpayer Contributions:
California Birth Defects Research Fund

Currently there are about 550,000 babies being born each year in California, and of these infants more than 12,500 are being born with serious birth defects. We know this to be a fact because of the work performed by the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program.

This program was set in place in 1982 as a means for determining the causes of birth defects. The necessary funding to conduct program studies has never been adequate to perform the needed research to move casual findings into prevention strategies.

Additional funding is required in order to expedite research on the most common birth defects, including heart defects, cleft lip and palate, neural tube defects, Down syndrome, as well as on cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

SB493 would allow individual taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of the California Birth Defects Research Fund.


SB1185 (Johnston) Genetic Characteristics

Existing law prohibits discrimination in employment based on an individual’s medical condition, which is defined to include genetic characteristics. Existing law also prohibits discrimination in the enrollment of health care service plans and defines “genetic characteristics” for these purposes.

SB1185 would recast and rephrase the definition of “genetic characteristics”.


SB1197 (Morrow) Motorcycles: Helmets

Existing law makes it a requirement that any person riding on a motorcycle, motor-driven cycle, or motorized bicycle must wear a safety helmet.

This law has been very successful in reducing the number of deaths and injuries related to motorcycle crashes. During the first seven years under the California law, there have been over 2,000 fewer motorcycle-riders killed, and over 50,000 fewer motorcycle-riders injured than had occurred during the seven-year pre-law period.

These are very significant numbers, but well organized efforts continue to attempt to get the law repealed.

SB1197 would repeal the entire section 27803 of the Vehicle Code regarding safety helmets