I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3560 

To require the Food and Drug Administration to carry out certain activities 

with respect to food choking hazards to children, including a program 

to provide education to the public. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 28, 2005 

Mr. HONDA (for himself and Mr. TOWNS) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To require the Food and Drug Administration to carry out 

certain activities with respect to food choking hazards 

to children, including a program to provide education 

to the public. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food Choking Preven5 tion Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FOOD CHOKING HAZARDS IN CHILDREN. 

7 (a) EDUCATION.— 
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 

2 Human Services, acting through the Commissioner 

3 of Food and Drugs (referred to in this section as the 

4 ‘‘Commissioner’’), shall carry out a program to pro5 vide education to the public on food choking hazards 

6 to children, including education on preventing such 

7 hazards and performing life-saving procedures in the 

8 event of food choking. 

9 (2) CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.—The following 

10 applies with respect to the the program under para11 graph (1): 

12 (A) The Commissioner shall give priority 

13 to providing education to parents of children 

14 who are 14 years of age or younger, and to 

15 such children directly. 

16 (B) The means through which such edu17 cation is provided shall include the preparation 

18 of education materials to be distributed by pedi19 atricians, hospitals, day care centers, and 

20 schools. 

21 (C) Each year the Commissioner shall des22 ignate a particular week during which the ac23 tivities of the program will be intensified to pro24 vide for the broad dissemination to the public of 

25 the information with which the program is con-
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1 cerned (referred to in this subsection as ‘‘pre2 vention week’’). The Commissioner shall provide 

3 a name for the prevention week, and shall make 

4 references to such name in promoting the week. 

5 (b) CLASSES DURING PREVENTION WEEK.—The 

6 Commissioner may make awards of grants or contracts for 

7 the purpose of holding, during the prevention week under 

8 subsection (a)(2)(C), classes for the public on preventing 

9 food choking hazards and performing life-saving proce10 dures in the event of food choking, including instruction 

11 on performing the technique known as cardiopulmonary 

12 resuscitation. 

13 (c) STUDY BY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner shall re15 quest the National Academy of Sciences to enter 

16 into an agreement to conduct, with respect to food 

17 choking hazards to children, a comprehensive 

18 study— 

19 (A) to assess the accuracy and adequacy of 

20 current data and data collection efforts; 

21 (B) to document the number and nature of 

22 incidents of food choking-related deaths and in23 juries by age group annually; 

24 (C) to consider the nature and causes of 

25 childhood food choking incidents; 
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1 (D) to establish criteria for determining 

2 whether a food poses a significant choking haz3 ard to children; and 

4 (E) to assess the opportunities and key im5 pediments to congressional, regulatory, and pri6 vate sector initiatives to reduce the number of 

7 child deaths and injuries due to food choking. 

8 (2) COMMITTEE OF LEADING EXPERTS.—The 

9 Commissioner shall ensure that the agreement under 

10 paragraph (1) provides that, in conducting the study 

11 under such paragraph, the National Academy of 

12 Sciences will convene a committee of leading experts 

13 and key stakeholders in the medical, consumer pro14 tection, and business communities. 

15 (3) REPORT.—The Commissioner shall ensure 

16 that the agreement under paragraph (1) provides 

17 that, not later than one year after the date on which 

18 the agreement is entered into, the study under such 

19 paragraph will be completed and a report providing 

20 the findings of the study will be submitted to the 

21 Commissioner and to the appropriate committees of 

22 the Congress. 

23 (4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For 

24 the purpose of carrying out this subsection, there is 

25 authorized to be appropriated $800,000. 
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1 (d) REPORT ON SYSTEM FOR DATA COLLECTION ON

2 DEATHS.—Not later than six months after the date of the 

3 enactment of this Act, the Commissioner shall report to 

4 the Congress on the reliability and utility of current sys5 tems for the collection of data on food choking-related 

6 deaths. 

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