IIB 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5669 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 5, 2008 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

AN ACT 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the 

poison center national toll-free number, national media 

campaign, and grant program to provide assistance for 

poison prevention, sustain the funding of poison centers, 

and enhance the public health of people of the United 

States. 


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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 ‘‘Poison Center Sup5 port, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) Poison centers are the primary defense of 

9 the United States against injury and deaths from 

10 poisoning. Twenty-four hours a day, the general 

11 public as well as health care practitioners contact 

12 their local poison centers for help in diagnosing and 

13 treating victims of poisoning. In 2007, more than 4 

14 million calls were managed by poison centers pro15 viding ready and direct access for all people of the 

16 United States, including many underserved popu17 lations in the United States, with vital emergency 

18 public health information and response. 

19 (2) Poisoning is the second most common form 

20 of unintentional death in the United States. In any 

21 given year, there will be between 3 million and 5 

22 million poison exposures. Sixty percent of these ex23 posures will involve children under the age of 6 who 

24 are exposed to toxins in their home. Poisoning ac25 counts for 285,000 hospitalizations, 1.2 million days 


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1 of acute hospital care, and more than 26,000 fatali2 ties in 2005. 

3 (3) In 2008, the Harvard Injury Control Re4 search Center reported that poisonings from acci5 dents and unknown circumstances more than tripled 

6 in rate since 1990. In 2005, the last year for which 

7 data are available, 26,858 people died from acci8 dental or unknown poisonings. This represents an 

9 increase of 20,000 since 1990 and an increase of 

10 2,400 between 2004 and 2005. Fatalities from poi11 soning are increasing in the United States in near 

12 epidemic proportions. The funding of programs to 

13 reverse this trend is needed now more than ever. 

14 (4) In 2004, The Institute of Medicine, of the 

15 National Academies recommended that the ‘‘Con16 gress should amend the current Poison Control Cen17 ter Enhancement and Awareness Act Amendments 

18 of 2003 to provide sufficient funding to support the 

19 proposed Poison Prevention and Control System 

20 with its national network of poison centers. Support 

21 for the core activities at the current level of service 

22 is estimated to require more than $100 million an23 nually.’’. 

24 (5) Sustaining the funding structure and in25 creasing accessibility to poison control centers will 


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1 promote the utilization of poison control centers and 

2 reduce the inappropriate use of emergency medical 

3 services and other more costly health care services. 

4 The 2004 Institute of Medicine Report to Congress 

5 determined that for every $1 invested in the Na6 tion’s poison centers $7 of health care costs are 

7 saved. In 2005, direct Federal health care program 

8 savings totaled in excess of $525 million as the re9 sult of poison center public health services. 

10 (6) More than 30 percent of the cost savings 

11 and financial benefits of the Nation’s network of poi12 son centers are realized annually by Federal health 

13 care programs (estimated to be more than $1 bil14 lion), yet Federal funding support (as demonstrated 

15 by the annual authorization of $30.1 million in Pub16 lic Law 108–194) comprises less than 11 percent of 

17 the annual network expenditures of poison centers. 

18 (7) Real-time data collected from the Nation’s 

19 certified poison centers can be an important source 

20 of information for the detection, monitoring, and re21 sponse for contamination of the air, water, pharma22 ceutical, or food supply. 

23 (8) In the event of a terrorist event, poison cen24 ters will be relied upon as a critical source for accu25 rate medical information and public health emerVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:37 Jun 06, 2008 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5669.RFS H5669

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1 gency response concerning the treatment of patients 

2 who have had an exposure to a chemical, radio3 logical, or biological agent. 

4 SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF POISON CENTERS NATIONAL 

5 TOLL-FREE NUMBER. 

6 Section 1271 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

7 U.S.C. 300d–71) is amended to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 1271. MAINTENANCE OF THE NATIONAL TOLL-FREE 

9 NUMBER. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide co11 ordination and assistance to poison centers for the estab12 lishment of a nationwide toll-free phone number, and the 

13 maintenance of such number, to be used to access such 

14 centers. 

15 ‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 are authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 for each of 

17 the fiscal years 2000 through 2009 to carry out this sec18 tion; and $1,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 

19 through 2014 for the maintenance of the nationwide toll20 free phone number under subsection (a).’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAM2 PAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON CENTER UTILI3 ZATION. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1272 of the Public Health 

5 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d–72) is amended to read as 

6 follows: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 1272. NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE 

8 POISON CENTER UTILIZATION. 

9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out, 

10 and expand upon, a national media campaign to educate 

11 the public and health care providers about poison preven12 tion and the availability of poison center resources in local 

13 communities and to conduct advertising campaigns con14 cerning the nationwide toll-free number established under 

15 section 1271(a). 

16 ‘‘(b) CONTRACT WITH ENTITY.—The Secretary may 

17 carry out subsection (a) by entering into contracts with 

18 a nationally recognized organization in the field of poison 

19 control for the development and implementation of a na20 tionwide poison prevention and poison center awareness 

21 campaign, which may include the development and dis22 tribution of poison prevention and poison center awareness 

23 materials; television, radio, Internet, and newspaper public 

24 service announcements; and other means of public and 

25 professional awareness and education. 

26 ‘‘(c) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall— 


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1 ‘‘(1) establish baseline measures and bench2 marks to quantitatively evaluate the impact of the 

3 nationwide media campaign carried out under this 

4 section; and 

5 ‘‘(2) prepare and submit to the appropriate 

6 congressional committees an evaluation of the na7 tionwide media campaign on an annual basis. 

8 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

9 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

10 $600,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2005, 

11 such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 

12 2006 through 2009, and $1,500,000 for each of the fiscal 

13 years 2010 through 2014.’’. 

14 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

15 this section shall be effective as of the date of the enact16 ment of this Act and shall apply to contracts entered into 

17 on or after January 1, 2009. 

18 SEC. 5. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE POISON CENTER 

19 GRANT PROGRAM. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1273 of the Public Health 

21 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d–73) is amended to read as 

22 follows: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 1273. MAINTENANCE OF THE POISON CENTER GRANT 

2 PROGRAM. 

3 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION OF GRANT PROGRAM.—The 

4 Secretary shall award grants to poison centers certified 

5 under subsection (c) (or granted a waiver under subsection 

6 (d)) and professional organizations in the field of poison 

7 control for the purposes of preventing, and providing 

8 treatment recommendations for, poisonings and complying 

9 with the operational requirements needed to sustain the 

10 certification of the center under subsection (c). 

11 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL USES OF GRANT FUNDS.—In addi12 tion to the purposes described in subsection (a), a poison 

13 center or professional organization awarded a grant under 

14 such subsection may also use such grant for the following 

15 purposes: 

16 ‘‘(1) To establish and evaluate best practices in 

17 the United States for poison prevention, poison cen18 ter outreach, and emergency and preparedness pro19 grams. 

20 ‘‘(2) To research, develop, implement, revise, 

21 and communicate standard patient management 

22 guidelines for commonly encountered toxic expo23 sures. 

24 ‘‘(3) To improve national toxic exposure surveil25 lance by enhancing cooperative activities between 


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1 poison centers in the United States and the Centers 

2 for Disease Control and Prevention. 

3 ‘‘(4) To develop, support, and enhance tech4 nology and capabilities of professional organizations 

5 in the field of poison control to collect national poi6 soning, toxic occurrence, and related public health 

7 data. 

8 ‘‘(5) To develop initiatives to foster the en9 hanced public health utilization of national poison 

10 data collected by organizations described in para11 graph (4). 

12 ‘‘(6) To support and expand the toxicologic ex13 pertise within poison centers. 

14 ‘‘(7) To improve the capacity of poison centers 

15 to answer high volumes of calls and respond during 

16 times of national crisis or other public health emer17 gencies. 

18 ‘‘(c) CERTIFICATION.—Except as provided under 

19 subsection (d), the Secretary may make a grant to a poi20 son center under subsection (a) only if— 

21 ‘‘(1) the center has been certified by a profes22 sional organization in the field of poison control, and 

23 the Secretary has approved the organization as hav24 ing in effect standards for certification that reasonVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:37 Jun 06, 2008 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5669.RFS H5669

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1 ably provide for the protection of the public health 

2 with respect to poisoning; or 

3 ‘‘(2) the center has been certified by a State 

4 government, and the Secretary has approved the 

5 State government as having in effect standards for 

6 certification that reasonably provide for the protec7 tion of the public health with respect to poisoning. 

8 ‘‘(d) WAIVER OF CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may grant a 

10 waiver of the certification requirement of subsection 

11 (c) with respect to a noncertified poison center that 

12 applies for a grant under this section if such center 

13 can reasonably demonstrate that the center will ob14 tain such a certification within a reasonable period 

15 of time as determined appropriate by the Secretary. 

16 ‘‘(2) RENEWAL.—The Secretary may renew a 

17 waiver under paragraph (1). 

18 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—In no instance may the sum 

19 of the number of years for a waiver under paragraph 

20 (1) and a renewal under paragraph (2) exceed 5 

21 years. The preceding sentence shall take effect as of 

22 the date of the enactment of the Poison Center Sup23 port, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008. 

24 ‘‘(e) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Amounts made 

25 available to a poison center under this section shall be 


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1 used to supplement and not supplant other Federal, State, 

2 or local funds provided for such center. 

3 ‘‘(f) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.—A poison center, in 

4 utilizing the proceeds of a grant under this section, shall 

5 maintain the expenditures of the center for activities of 

6 the center at a level that is not less than the level of ex7 penditures maintained by the center for the fiscal year 

8 preceding the fiscal year for which the grant is received. 

9 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

10 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this sec11 tion— 

12 ‘‘(1) for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 

13 2004, $25,000,000; 

14 ‘‘(2) for each of the fiscal years 2005 through 

15 2009, $27,500,000; and 

16 ‘‘(3) for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 

17 2014, $35,000,000, of which $1,500,000 shall be 

18 used to award grants for the purpose described in 

19 subsection (b)(4).’’. 

20 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

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1 ment of this Act and shall apply to grants made on or 

2 after January 1, 2009. 

Passed the House of Representatives June 4, 2008. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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