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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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Poison Center Sup-
port, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Poison centers are the primary defense of 
the United States against injury and deaths from 
poisoning. Twenty-four hours a day, the general 
public as well as health care practitioners contact 
their local poison centers for help in diagnosing and 
treating victims of poisoning. In 2007, more than 4 
million calls were managed by poison centers pro-
viding ready and direct access for all people of the 
United States, including many underserved popu-
lations in the United States, with vital emergency 
public health information and response. 
(2) Poisoning is the second most common form 
of unintentional death in the United States. In any 
given year, there will be between 3 million and 5 
million poison exposures. Sixty percent of these ex-
posures will involve children under the age of 6 who 
are exposed to toxins in their home. Poisoning ac-
counts for 285,000 hospitalizations, 1.2 million days 
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of acute hospital care, and more than 26,000 fatali-
ties in 2005. 
(3) In 2008, the Harvard Injury Control Re-
search Center reported that poisonings from acci-
dents and unknown circumstances more than tripled 
in rate since 1990. In 2005, the last year for which 
data are available, 26,858 people died from acci-
dental or unknown poisonings. This represents an 
increase of 20,000 since 1990 and an increase of 
2,400 between 2004 and 2005. Fatalities from poi-
soning are increasing in the United States in near 
epidemic proportions. The funding of programs to 
reverse this trend is needed now more than ever. 
(4) In 2004, The Institute of Medicine, of the 
National Academies recommended that the ‘‘Con-
gress should amend the current Poison Control Cen-
ter Enhancement and Awareness Act Amendments 
of 2003 to provide sufficient funding to support the 
proposed Poison Prevention and Control System 
with its national network of poison centers. Support 
for the core activities at the current level of service 
is estimated to require more than $100 million an-
nually.’’. 
(5) Sustaining the funding structure and in-
creasing accessibility to poison control centers will 
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promote the utilization of poison control centers and 
reduce the inappropriate use of emergency medical 
services and other more costly health care services. 
The 2004 Institute of Medicine Report to Congress 
determined that for every $1 invested in the Na-
tion’s poison centers $7 of health care costs are 
saved. In 2005, direct Federal health care program 
savings totaled in excess of $525 million as the re-
sult of poison center public health services. 
(6) More than 30 percent of the cost savings 
and financial benefits of the Nation’s network of poi-
son centers are realized annually by Federal health 
care programs (estimated to be more than $1 bil-
lion), yet Federal funding support (as demonstrated 
by the annual authorization of $30.1 million in Pub-
lic Law 108–194) comprises less than 11 percent of 
the annual network expenditures of poison centers. 
(7) Real-time data collected from the Nation’s 
certified poison centers can be an important source 
of information for the detection, monitoring, and re-
sponse for contamination of the air, water, pharma-
ceutical, or food supply. 
(8) In the event of a terrorist event, poison cen-
ters will be relied upon as a critical source for accu-
rate medical information and public health emer-
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gency response concerning the treatment of patients 
who have had an exposure to a chemical, radio-
logical, or biological agent. 
SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF POISON CENTERS NATIONAL 
TOLL-FREE NUMBER. 
Section 1271 of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 300d–71) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 1271. MAINTENANCE OF THE NATIONAL TOLL-FREE 
NUMBER. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide co-
ordination and assistance to poison centers for the estab-
lishment of a nationwide toll-free phone number, and the 
maintenance of such number, to be used to access such 
centers. 
‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 for each of 
the fiscal years 2000 through 2009 to carry out this sec-
tion; and $1,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 
through 2014 for the maintenance of the nationwide toll- 
free phone number under subsection (a).’’. 
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SEC. 4. REAUTHORIZATION OF NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAM-
PAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON CENTER UTILI-
ZATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1272 of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d–72) is amended to read as 
follows: 
‘‘SEC. 1272. NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE 
POISON CENTER UTILIZATION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out, 
and expand upon, a national media campaign to educate 
the public and health care providers about poison preven-
tion and the availability of poison center resources in local 
communities and to conduct advertising campaigns con-
cerning the nationwide toll-free number established under 
section 1271(a). 
‘‘(b) CONTRACT WITH ENTITY.—The Secretary may 
carry out subsection (a) by entering into contracts with 
a nationally recognized organization in the field of poison 
control for the development and implementation of a na-
tionwide poison prevention and poison center awareness 
campaign, which may include the development and dis-
tribution of poison prevention and poison center awareness 
materials; television, radio, Internet, and newspaper public 
service announcements; and other means of public and 
professional awareness and education. 
‘‘(c) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall— 
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‘‘(1) establish baseline measures and bench-
marks to quantitatively evaluate the impact of the 
nationwide media campaign carried out under this 
section; and 
‘‘(2) prepare and submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees an evaluation of the na-
tionwide media campaign on an annual basis. 
‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$600,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2005, 
such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 
2006 through 2009, and $1,500,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2010 through 2014.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall be effective as of the date of the enact-
ment of this Act and shall apply to contracts entered into 
on or after January 1, 2009. 
SEC. 5. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE POISON CENTER 
GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1273 of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d–73) is amended to read as 
follows: 
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‘‘SEC. 1273. MAINTENANCE OF THE POISON CENTER GRANT 
PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION
OF GRANT PROGRAM.—The 
Secretary shall award grants to poison centers certified 
under subsection (c) (or granted a waiver under subsection 
(d)) and professional organizations in the field of poison 
control for the purposes of preventing, and providing 
treatment recommendations for, poisonings and complying 
with the operational requirements needed to sustain the 
certification of the center under subsection (c). 
‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL USES OF GRANT FUNDS.—In addi-
tion to the purposes described in subsection (a), a poison 
center or professional organization awarded a grant under 
such subsection may also use such grant for the following 
purposes: 
‘‘(1) To establish and evaluate best practices in 
the United States for poison prevention, poison cen-
ter outreach, and emergency and preparedness pro-
grams. 
‘‘(2) To research, develop, implement, revise, 
and communicate standard patient management 
guidelines for commonly encountered toxic expo-
sures. 
‘‘(3) To improve national toxic exposure surveil-
lance by enhancing cooperative activities between 
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poison centers in the United States and the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention. 
‘‘(4) To develop, support, and enhance tech-
nology and capabilities of professional organizations 
in the field of poison control to collect national poi-
soning, toxic occurrence, and related public health 
data. 
‘‘(5) To develop initiatives to foster the en-
hanced public health utilization of national poison 
data collected by organizations described in para-
graph (4). 
‘‘(6) To support and expand the toxicologic ex-
pertise within poison centers. 
‘‘(7) To improve the capacity of poison centers 
to answer high volumes of calls and respond during 
times of national crisis or other public health emer-
gencies. 
‘‘(c) CERTIFICATION.—Except as provided under 
subsection (d), the Secretary may make a grant to a poi-
son center under subsection (a) only if— 
‘‘(1) the center has been certified by a profes-
sional organization in the field of poison control, and 
the Secretary has approved the organization as hav-
ing in effect standards for certification that reason-
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ably provide for the protection of the public health 
with respect to poisoning; or 
‘‘(2) the center has been certified by a State 
government, and the Secretary has approved the 
State government as having in effect standards for 
certification that reasonably provide for the protec-
tion of the public health with respect to poisoning. 
‘‘(d) WAIVER OF CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may grant a 
waiver of the certification requirement of subsection 
(c) with respect to a noncertified poison center that 
applies for a grant under this section if such center 
can reasonably demonstrate that the center will ob-
tain such a certification within a reasonable period 
of time as determined appropriate by the Secretary. 
‘‘(2) RENEWAL.—The Secretary may renew a 
waiver under paragraph (1). 
‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—In no instance may the sum 
of the number of years for a waiver under paragraph 
(1) and a renewal under paragraph (2) exceed 5 
years. The preceding sentence shall take effect as of 
the date of the enactment of the Poison Center Sup-
port, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008. 
‘‘(e) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Amounts made 
available to a poison center under this section shall be 
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