Yesterday, with only the Senate in session (the House was
only in town for a short week) there were 38 pieces of legislation introduced.
One of those was of potential interest to readers of this blog; S 242, bill to
reauthorize certain programs under the Public Health Service Act and the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to public health security and
all-hazards preparedness and response, and for other purposes. This bill
was introduced by Sen. Burr (R,NC).
This bill looks like it may be similar to HR
307, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013,
that was passed
last month in the House. It would
make little sense to introduce a companion bill when the House bill has already
been referred to the Senate, so this may include some alternative language.
Still that could have been handled with an amendment to the House bill, so we
will have to wait and see what the bill actually says when it is published by the GPO.
Again, I would like to see it include a requirement for
high-risk chemical facilities to notify local health agencies and hospitals of
significant quantities of toxic inhalation chemicals used at those facilities
so that there medical response community could be properly prepared for a mass
casualty event if there were a large release of such materials either due to an
accidental release or a terrorist attack.
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1 comment:
PJ: Do you have any data on how many in industry already coordinate with hospitals, FDs, local EMAs, etc.? When I was at the refinery in Cheyenne, WY, we worked toward a high degree of coordination with those agencies...just wonder if it was because it is a small community where everyone knows everyone else, or if it is a general industry practice. We did it because it just made sense.
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