Title: School Backpack Awareness Month

Summary: Recognizes August 2018 as "School Backpack Awareness Month" in State of Florida.

Full Text:
WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 7,000 emergency room visits each year are due to school backpack-related injuries, and WHEREAS, in 2010 alone, physicians' offices, clinics, and hospital emergency rooms treated nearly 28,000 strains, sprains, dislocations, and fractures resulting from imprope rly worn or overloaded school backpacks, and WHEREAS, studies have shown heavy loads carried on the back have the potential to damage the soft tissues of the shoulder, causing microstructural damage to the nerves and damage to internal organs, and WHEREAS, studies have shown an increase in curvatures of the spine and compressed intervertebral height when a school backpack exceeds percent of a child's body weight, and WHEREAS, the Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010 showed low back pain as the numbe rone cause of disability worldwide, while musculoskeletal disorders were the second cause, and WHEREAS, children's textbooks are much heavier now than many years ago, and in addition to textbooks, students often carry computers, cell phones, water bottle s, running shoes, band instruments, and other equipment considered essential to have readily available, and WHEREAS, more than percent of students carry school backpacks, which, in studies, have been found to weigh as much as percent of the child's body weight, and WHEREAS, school backpacks are often not worn correctly, often slung over one shoulder or allowed to hang significantly below the waistline, increasing the weight on the shoulders and making the child lean forward when walking or stoop for ward when standing to compensate for the extra weight, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Florida: That August 2018 is recognized as "School Backpack Awareness Month" in the State of Florida to promote awa reness of the potentially serious and damaging long-term health effects of carrying overloaded or improperly worn school backpacks.