II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1972 

To require air carriers to modify certain policies with respect to the use 

of epinephrine for in-flight emergencies, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 5, 2015 

Mr. KIRK (for himself and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To require air carriers to modify certain policies with respect 

to the use of epinephrine for in-flight emergencies, and 

for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Airline Access to 

5 Emergency Epinephrine Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REGULATIONS RELATING TO EPINEPHRINE ON AIR7 CRAFT. 

8 (a) CLARIFICATION RELATING TO USE OF EPINEPH9 RINE AMPULES.—Not later than 30 days after the date 


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1 of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 

2 Federal Aviation Administration shall clarify, and shall re3 quire air carriers to clarify, that 1:1,000 epinephrine am4 pules included in emergency medical kits carried on air5 craft before such date of enactment are intended to be 

6 used for the treatment of anaphylaxis. 

7 (b) REQUIREMENT FOR AIR CARRIERS TO CARRY

8 EPINEPHRINE AUTO-INJECTORS ON AIRCRAFT.—Not 

9 later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of 

10 this Act, the Administrator shall require an air carrier— 

11 (1) to carry on each aircraft operated by the air 

12 carrier not fewer than 2 packs of epinephrine auto13 injectors, one pack for use on individuals weighing 

14 less than 66 pounds and one pack for use on individ15 uals weighing more than 66 pounds; 

16 (2) to use those epinephrine auto-injectors as 

17 the initial treatment for anaphylaxis; and 

18 (3) to replace those epinephrine auto-injectors 

19 upon expiration or use. 

20 (c) TRAINING REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 

21 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Adminis22 trator shall require air carriers to provide crewmembers 

23 with initial and recurrent training, developed based on the 

24 advice of experts, on how to recognize the symptoms of 


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1 an acute allergic reaction and how to administer auto2 injectable epinephrine. 

3 SEC. 3. REPORT ON AIR CARRIER POLICIES RELATING TO 

4 PASSENGERS WITH FOOD ALLERGIES. 

5 Not later than 18 months after the date of the enact6 ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 

7 States shall submit to Congress a report describing— 

8 (1) the policies of air carriers in effect as of the 

9 date of the report with respect to the accommoda10 tion of passengers with food allergies, including poli11 cies relating to communication with passengers, 

12 seating accommodations, food service, and emer13 gency procedures; 

14 (2) the extent of variability of such policies 

15 within and among air carriers; 

16 (3) the extent to which passengers can deter17 mine what the policies of an air carrier with respect 

18 to the accommodation of passengers with food aller19 gies are before making a flight reservation on an air20 craft operated by the air carrier; 

21 (4) the extent to which employees of air carriers 

22 are trained on, aware of, consistently adhere to, and 

23 enforce such policies; 

24 (5) the efforts that would be necessary to de25 velop a model policy with respect to the accommodaVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:17 Aug 12, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1972.IS S1972

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1 tion of passengers with food allergies that could be 

2 made available to and adopted by all air carriers; 

3 (6) the incidence of requests made by pas4 sengers with food allergies for accommodation by air 

5 carriers; 

6 (7) the incidence of in-flight allergic reactions 

7 for which medical intervention is requested and the 

8 prevalence of the use of epinephrine for such inci9 dents; 

10 (8) the incidence of emergency landings made 

11 because of suspected or known allergic reactions in 

12 flight; and 

13 (9) the approximate cost of such emergency 

14 landings to air carriers. 

15 SEC. 4. AIR CARRIER DEFINED. 

16 In this Act, the term ‘‘air carrier’’ means an air car17 rier or foreign air carrier, as those terms are defined in 

18 section 40102 of title 49, United States Code. 

Æ 


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