I 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5669 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 1, 2008 

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

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

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. 

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’’. 

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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) Poison centers are the primary defense of 

4 the United States against injury and deaths from 

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

6 public as well as health care practitioners contact 

7 their local poison centers for help in diagnosing and 

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

9 million calls were managed by poison centers pro10 viding ready and direct access for all people of the 

11 United States, including many underserved popu12 lations in the United States, with vital emergency 

13 public health information and response. 

14 (2) Poisoning is the second most common form 

15 of unintentional death in the United States. In any 

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

17 million poison exposures. Sixty percent of these ex18 posures will involve children under the age of 6 who 

19 are exposed to toxins in their home. Poisoning ac20 counts for 285,000 hospitalizations, 1.2 million days 

21 of acute hospital care, and more than 26,000 fatali22 ties in 2005. 

23 (3) In 2008, the Harvard Injury Control Re24 search Center reported that poisonings from acci25 dents and unknown circumstances more than tripled 

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

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1 data are available, 26,858 people died from acci2 dental or unknown poisonings. This represents an 

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

4 2,400 between 2004 and 2005. Fatalities from poi5 soning are increasing in the United States in near 

6 epidemic proportions. The funding of programs to 

7 reverse this trend is needed now more than ever. 

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

9 National Academies recommended that the ‘‘Con10 gress should amend the current Poison Control Cen11 ter Enhancement and Awareness Act Amendments 

12 of 2003 to provide sufficient funding to support the 

13 proposed Poison Prevention and Control System 

14 with its national network of poison centers. Support 

15 for the core activities at the current level of service 

16 is estimated to require more than $100 million an17 nually.’’. 

18 (5) Sustaining the funding structure and in19 creasing accessibility to poison control centers will 

20 promote the utilization of poison control centers and 

21 reduce the inappropriate use of emergency medical 

22 services and other more costly health care services. 

23 The 2004 Institute of Medicine Report to Congress 

24 determined that for every $1 invested in the Na25 tion’s poison centers $7 of health care costs are 

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1 saved. In 2005, direct Federal health care program 

2 savings totaled in excess of $525 million as the re3 sult of poison center public health services. 

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

5 and financial benefits of the Nation’s network of poi6 son centers are realized annually by Federal health 

7 care programs (estimated to be more than $1 bil8 lion), yet Federal funding support (as demonstrated 

9 by the annual authorization of $30.1 million in Pub10 lic Law 108–194) comprises less than 11 percent of 

11 the annual network expenditures of poison centers. 

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

13 certified poison centers can be an important source 

14 of information for the detection, monitoring, and re15 sponse for contamination of the air, water, pharma16 ceutical, or food supply. 

17 (8) In the event of a terrorist event, poison cen18 ters will be relied upon as a critical source for accu19 rate medical information and public health emer20 gency response concerning the treatment of patients 

21 who have had an exposure to a chemical, radio22 logical, or biological agent. 

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1 SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF POISON CENTERS NATIONAL 

2 TOLL-FREE NUMBER. 

3 Section 1271 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

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

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

6 NUMBER. 

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide co8 ordination and assistance to poison centers for the estab9 lishment of a nationwide toll-free phone number, and the 

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

11 centers. 

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

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

14 the fiscal years 2000 through 2009 to carry out this sec15 tion; and $1,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 

16 through 2014 for the maintenance of the nationwide toll17 free phone number under subsection (a).’’. 

18 SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAM19 PAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON CENTER UTILI20 ZATION. 

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

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

23 follows: 

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

2 POISON CENTER UTILIZATION. 

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

4 and expand upon, a national media campaign to educate 

5 the public and health care providers about poison preven6 tion and the availability of poison center resources in local 

7 communities and to conduct advertising campaigns con8 cerning the nationwide toll-free number established under 

9 section 1271(a). 

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

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

12 a nationally recognized organization in the field of poison 

13 control for the development and implementation of a na14 tionwide poison prevention and poison center awareness 

15 campaign, which may include the development and dis16 tribution of poison prevention and poison center awareness 

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

18 service announcements; and other means of public and 

19 professional awareness and education. 

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

21 ‘‘(1) establish baseline measures and bench22 marks to quantitatively evaluate the impact of the 

23 nationwide media campaign carried out under this 

24 section; and 

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

2 congressional committees an evaluation of the na3 tionwide media campaign on an annual basis. 

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

5 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

6 $600,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2005, 

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

8 2006 through 2009, and $1,500,000 for each of the fiscal 

9 years 2010 through 2014.’’. 

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

11 this section shall be effective as of the date of the enact12 ment of this Act and shall apply to contracts entered into 

13 on or after January 1, 2009. 

14 SEC. 5. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE POISON CENTER 

15 GRANT PROGRAM. 

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

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

18 follows: 

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

20 PROGRAM. 

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

22 Secretary shall award grants to poison centers certified 

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

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

25 control for the purposes of preventing, and providing 

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1 treatment recommendations for, poisonings and complying 

2 with the operational requirements needed to sustain the 

3 certification of the center under subsection (c). 

4 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL USES OF GRANT FUNDS.—In addi5 tion to the purposes described in subsection (a), a poison 

6 center or professional organization awarded a grant under 

7 such subsection may also use such grant for the following 

8 purposes: 

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

10 the United States for poison prevention, poison cen11 ter outreach, and emergency and preparedness pro12 grams. 

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

14 and communicate standard patient management 

15 guidelines for commonly encountered toxic expo16 sures. 

17 ‘‘(3) To improve national toxic exposure surveil18 lance by enhancing cooperative activities between 

19 poison centers in the United States and the Centers 

20 for Disease Control and Prevention. 

21 ‘‘(4) To develop, support, and enhance tech22 nology and capabilities of professional organizations 

23 in the field of poison control to collect national poi24 soning, toxic occurrence, and related public health 

25 data. 

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1 ‘‘(5) To develop initiatives to foster the en2 hanced public health utilization of national poison 

3 data collected by organizations described in para4 graph (4). 

5 ‘‘(6) To support and expand the toxicologic ex6 pertise within poison centers. 

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

8 to answer high volumes of calls and respond during 

9 times of national crisis or other public health emer10 gencies. 

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

12 subsection (d), the Secretary may make a grant to a poi13 son center under subsection (a) only if— 

14 ‘‘(1) the center has been certified by a profes15 sional organization in the field of poison control, and 

16 the Secretary has approved the organization as hav17 ing in effect standards for certification that reason18 ably provide for the protection of the public health 

19 with respect to poisoning; or 

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

21 government, and the Secretary has approved the 

22 State government as having in effect standards for 

23 certification that reasonably provide for the protec24 tion of the public health with respect to poisoning. 

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

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

2 waiver of the certification requirement of subsection 

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

4 applies for a grant under this section if such center 

5 can reasonably demonstrate that the center will ob6 tain such a certification within a reasonable period 

7 of time as determined appropriate by the Secretary. 

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

9 waiver under paragraph (1). 

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

11 of the number of years for a waiver under paragraph 

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

13 years. The preceding sentence shall take effect as of 

14 the date of the enactment of the Poison Center Sup15 port, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008. 

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

17 available to a poison center under this section shall be 

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

19 or local funds provided for such center. 

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

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

22 maintain the expenditures of the center for activities of 

23 the center at a level that is not less than the level of ex24 penditures maintained by the center for the fiscal year 

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

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

2 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this sec3 tion— 

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

5 2004, $25,000,000; 

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

7 2009, $27,500,000; and 

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

9 2014, $35,000,000, of which $1,500,000 shall be 

10 used to award grants for the purpose described in 

11 subsection (b)(4).’’. 

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

13 this section shall be effective as of the date of the enact14 ment of this Act and shall apply to grants made on or 

15 after January 1, 2009. 

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