For more than 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has performed biomonitoring tests to directly measure individuals’ exposure to environmental contaminants. The National Biomonitoring Program’s analyses of human tissue, blood, hair, etc., have become the standard for assessing people’s exposure to toxic substances. It is a cutting-edge tool that delivers the most health-relevant assessments of exposure because it shows the amount of chemicals that actually get into people’s bodies – not just what someone might be exposed to.
This ongoing assessment of the U.S. population’s exposure to environmental chemicals is, according to the CDC, an essential component of the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.
To help bring the benefit of such analysis to Indiana citizens, I have introduced HB1289. This bill would establish a state program (in conjunction with the CDC) to monitor concentrations of toxic chemicals in individuals to address toxic pollution, and possible homeland security threats from chemical or biological attacks.
The bill establishes a Biomonitoring Advisory Panel (appointed by the Governor) to make recommendations concerning the design of the program, review the prioritization of the selection of certain chemicals or locations for biomonitoring activities, and review the dissemination of findings and reports. The members of the panel must include individuals who have expertise in public health, environmental science, environmental health, epidemiology, biology, toxicology, and endocrinology, and at least three of the members must be physicians.
As stated in the fiscal impact statement to HB1289, the oldest and probably best known biomonitoring initiative is the Childhood Lead Screening Program. The CDC’s 1976 biomonitoring study of lead levels in children’s blood ultimately resulted in the removal of lead additives from gasoline.
A 2003 article in Salon, entitled “What’s in your body’s chemical cocktail?,” addresses the history of biomonitoring, and its potential for the future:
It’s not exactly a new science: The first laboratory analyses of synthetic chemicals in breast milk were carried out back in the 1950s, and researchers have been testing people for high levels of contaminants such as DDT and lead for decades. But this early work focused on people who had obvious reasons to worry, such as those who’d been exposed to massive doses of toxins in accidents or on the job. Modern biomonitoring can suss out much lower levels of contamination, quantifying the chemical cocktail in us average Janes and Joes.
In July 2005, the CDC released its Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, a national biomonitoring study released every two years. The study found troubling levels of toxic chemicals, including metals, carcinogens and organic toxics like insecticides, in individuals across the country.
A 2004 study by the World Wildlife Fund’s Detox Campaign, entitled “Bad Blood,” took a unique approach and measured blood samples from 14 environemntal and health Ministers from 13 European Union countries. They were analysed for a total of 103 different man-made chemicals from 7 different chemical families - including organochlorine pesticides (including Dioxin and DDT), Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), perfluorinated chemicals, brominated flame retardants, and phthalates.
The report states:
The detection of at least 33 different chemicals in every person tested is very significant. Whilst many of the chemicals detected such as DDT, HCB and PCBs have been banned in Europe, several of the chemicals detected, such as phthalates, perfluorinated chemicals and certain flame retardants have not. This highlights that chemicals that have not been phased out are contaminating us to the same extent as older, banned chemicals.
It must be noted that those are from test results in Europe, which follows a “precautionary principle” where manufacturers must demonstrate that a product is safe before it is released. The US has no such standard. In fact, less thant 10% of the 75,000 industrial chemicals in use today in our country have been tested for their effects on humans.
I wonder what the results (and the reaction) would be if we did tests on government officials in Indiana?
After all, our fair state is ranked 9th in the country in total chemical releases covered under the Toxic Release Inventory. We are 8th in the nation in air releases, and 2nd in the nation in water releases. Disturbingly, Indiana is also ranked 4th in the nation in cancer risk.
Not encouraging for someone planning on starting a family, St. Joseph County is ranked 5th in the state among counties releasing recognized reproductive contaminants into the air.
(Another problem on the federal level is the proposed curtailment of information supplied to the Toxic Release Inventory.)
A 2004 article entitled “Chemical Danger” appeared in the eminent UK medical journal, The Lancet. It stated:
Chemicals could be the next tobacco for the World Health Organization (WHO)… There are thousands of artificial chemicals floating around in each individual and… Far from being harmless, as the chemical industry protests, these substances have been linked to several diseases—and children are particularly at risk. “We know these chemicals are contributing to disease in children. This is not speculation. It’s fact”, says Philip Landrigan, Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
Biomonitoring can help address these issues by applying a scientific framework to them. Documenting exposure, facilitating health impact studies, prioritizing safety assessments of chemicals, and identifying sources of exposure are within our reach. Indiana should take the lead in this area and establish a biomonitoring program.
As the CDC says:
By improving laboratory methods to measure selected chemicals in people; preventing health effects from exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment, and responding to terrorism and public health emergencies involving chemicals, the laboratory has been in the vanguard of efforts to improve people’s health across the nation and around the world.
To view the CDC’s excellent presentation on the subject, entitled “Biomonitoring: Making a Difference”, go here and click on “view the presentation.”
January 16th, 2006
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. We have come a long way since the early days of the Civil Rights movement, and while there is more work to do, it is important for us to reflect upon just how dire the situation was at the time.
While many of Dr. King’s writings and speeches are well-known, one of my favorites has always been “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
January 16th, 2006
Less well known than the Governor’s State of the State address is the annual “State of the Judiciary” address that occurs on the following day.
As required by Article 7, Section 3 of the Indiana Constitution, Chief Justice Randall Shepard today addressed a joint session of the General Assembly on the current status of the Indiana Judicial system – from courts, to attorneys, to jury pools.
Justice Shepard was accompanied into the House chamber by a procession of the other members of the Indiana Supreme Court, as well as many members of the Indiana Court of Appeals.
You can find the text of Justice Shepard’s remarks here.
January 12th, 2006
Last night Governor Mitch Daniels delivered his second State of the State address to the General Assembly.
The text of the Governor’s remarks can be found here, and additional coverage of the speech can be found at:
- Cigarette Tax Increase Part of Daniels’ Agenda (South Bend Tribune)
- Cigarette Tax Hike Proposed by Daniels (Indianapolis Star)
- Cigarettes and Schools Top Agenda (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)
- Lots of Promises, But Where are the Details? (House Minority Leader Bauer)
- Tax Increase, Tax Increase, Tax Increase (Taking Down Words)
- Running for Governor (Indiana Parley)
- Paying Off the Credit Card (Representative Steve Heim)
Here are some of the moments I captured while attending the State of the State address:
Earlier during the day, the House chamber is shut down to set up broadcasting equipment, run extra wiring, and to give the Governor a chance to practice with the TelePrompTers at the rostrum.
Shortly before the scheduled start time, the Speaker of the House takes his place to introduce the various dignitaries in attendance.
Representative Terri Austin (D – Anderson) applauds guests in the balcony.
The Governor makes his entrance flanked by an “honor guard” of escorts comprised of House and Senate members.
He works his way up the center aisle of the House chamber, shaking hands along the way.
After the speech, members of the General Assembly begin their after-speech chats with the media. Here, the Governor chats with lawmakers while Representative Russ Stilwell (D – Boonville) smiles for the camera.
January 12th, 2006
The Courts and Criminal Code Committee met today and considered three pieces of legislation.
HB 1157, to increase the number of judges in Marion County Superior Court, passed 10-0. As I have discussed earlier, this legislation was also endorsed by the Commission on Courts interim study committee in October.
HB 1156, another judges bill endorsed by the Commission on Courts, passed 9-0. After amendment in committee it:
- limits the amount of an excessive property tax levy to the estimate made by the local unit operating the court during its first year;
- allows the Supreme Court to determine a new method for forming jury pool lists –eliminating the voter registration lists as the sole source, and allowing for expansion to drivers license lists, tax rolls, etc; (so no more excuses for not registering to vote!)
- adds a second judge to the Jackson County Superior ourt.
Finally, HB 1016 would allow courts to charge pretrial detainees for “pretrial services,” such as drug rehab or domestic abuse programs. There is some concern over this legislation, as it would allow fees to be charged to people who have not yet been found guilty. However, several counties in the state already operate similar programs, and Representative Ralph Ayres (R- Chesterton) has agreed to work on further tightening up the language.
A second reading amendment could remove city and town courts from the program and eliminate a court’s ability to prevent license reinstatement for non-payment.
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Tonight I will be attending the Governor’s State of the State address, and will report back with details from the event.
January 11th, 2006
A “Voice of the People” letter in the South Bend Tribune recently contained a link to the Common Census Map Project. The site is an interactive cultural atlas that allows people to contribute information about the communities in which live.
It aims to:
…finally settle the question over exactly where cultural boundaries lie, contribute to the national debate over Congressional redistricting and gerrymandering, and educate people everywhere as to the true layout of the American people that they’ve never seen on any map before.
I found the Indiana map interesting in light of the ongoing debate over time zone boundaries:
If you are so inclined, take a minute to contribute your information to the project.
January 10th, 2006
Whenever a major telecommunications bill is introduced in the Legislature, too many people tend to tune it out because they feel the issue is just “too complicated.”
This year, Senator Brandt Hershman (R-Wheatfield) has filed SB 245, probably the most far-reaching telecommunications bill Indiana has seen. I will discuss that bill more specifically at a later time, but you can read a good overview on the fiscal impact statement here (pdf).
In the meantime, the article “Let There Be Wi-Fi” in the latest Washington Monthly provides an excellent primer on broadband issues that anyone can understand.
The thrust of the article is that broadband should be thought of as the 21st century equivalent of electricity:
Most people know broadband as an alternative to their old, slow dial-up Internet connection… But broadband is about much more than checking your email or browsing on EBay. In the near future, telephone, television, radio and the web all will be delivered to your home via a single broadband connection.
Calling American broadband “the slowest, most expensive and least reliable in the developed world,” the article points out that the US has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband penetration, while citizens of countries like Japan and South Korea have access to speeds ten times as fast as what is available in the US, and for half the price.
Even the US definition of Broadband – 200kbps – is 500 times slower than the new Japanese standards.
What does this mean for Indiana?
It means we will lose out on business opportunities to develop new commercial applications, products, and services designed for this communication. It means doctors in our hospitals will not have access to world-class diagnostic tools. It means our students will be learning obsolete technology. It means Indiana businesses that want to remain competitive in the global economy will have to pack up and move elsewhere.
In the 1880’s, when electricity was first available, it was marketed by private utilities as a luxury for the rich, big industry and major urban areas. Smaller towns who could not attract utility investment faced serious threats to their viability:
…communities were left with the choice of forming a government-owned utility or being left in the dark. Even big cities like Detroit built municipal power systems to cut prices and extend service. In response, private utility companies responded with a massive propaganda and misinformation campaign that attacked advocates of municipal power as “un-American,” “Bolshevik,” and “an unholy alliance of radicals.”
Indiana needs to set an aggressive broadband policy that guarantees universal access to high-speed data transmission. As with the Rural Electric Cooperatives that were formed for universal electrification, our policy should encourage every avenue of access for Hoosiers - including municipal broadband systems.
The article cites the small Indiana town of Scottsburg’s Citizen’s Communication Corp. as an example of how we can successfully accomplish this goal:
When three major employers in Scottsburg, Ind. (pop. 6,040), threatened to leave town because they didn’t have the communications infrastructure needed to deal with their customers and suppliers, the town’s mayor, Bill Graham, went to the major cable and telephone companies for help.
They told him that extending high-speed broadband services to Scottsburg wasn’t profitable enough.
So the city decided to build a municipal wireless “cloud” using transmitters placed on water and electric towers that reach more than 90 percent of the surrounding county’s 23,000 residents. “Scottsburg didn’t wake up one morning and say, we want to be in the broadband business,” Graham told PBS. “Scottsburg had business and industry that was going to leave our community because what we had was not fast enough.” Scottsburg’s investment worked—the employers stayed.
Broadband is the new essential public utility. Access to broadband can bring prosperity to our communities, and those without access will certainly suffer for it.
“Just as with the roads of old,” Dianah Neff, Philadelphia’s chief information technology officer, recently told BusinessWeek, “if broadband bypasses you, you become a ghost town.”
January 9th, 2006
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is dropping hints that the city of South Bend could be part of a Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. While the talk is still speculative, it goes without saying that a successful bid including South Bend could have a tremendous economic impact on our community.
Local venues such as Notre Dame Stadium and the East Race Waterway are good examples of first-class athletic facilities that are already used for national and international sporting events.
However, Masson’s Blog points out the possible negative ramifications for South Bend being in a different time zone than Chicago, and Mayor Daley has stressed the need to improve transportation between Chicago and South Bend.
January 6th, 2006
The South Bend Tribune today wrote a story about HB 1104, my bill (which I mentioned in an earlier post) that would remove from office any elected official who is more than $15,000 delinquent in child support payments:
Dvorak said the proposed legislation is really a “measure of responsibility.”
“The few (elected officials) that lack respect for their legal and moral obligations should not be entrusted with managing public programs or taxpayer dollars.”
WNDU-TV also interviewed me today for a story they titled “Dvorak introduces controversial legislation“:
Dvorak says, “I think it sets a very bad example for the rest of the citizens, when they see elected officials that are going massively delinquent in child support, and also there’s questions of trust and responsibility.”
I have also spoken with FOX28-TV about the bill, and they should be airing a story this evening, as well. (update: FOX28 story here)
If you have an opinion about this legislation, feel free to leave a comment here or let me know.
January 5th, 2006
The second day of the new session was about as uneventful as the first day. Bills are still being filed and distributed, and the list will continue to grow. The first week is now behind us, but the pace will quicken as Committees begin to meet and the Senate convenes next week.
I have been working with coauthors of my legislation and talking with committee chairs about ways to approach the upcoming schedule.
The Judiciary Committee did meet this morning. I am not a member of that committee, but it appears they passed a recodification of Title 21, and a technical corrections bill.
Congressman Dan Burton (R – IN05) stopped by the chamber for a vist today and spoke to us briefly from the Speaker’s rostrum. Congressman Burton’s brother is State Representative Woody Burton (R-Greenwood).
As always, feel free to let me know if there is anything I can do to be of assistance during the session.
January 5th, 2006
The first day of session was short on official business. Many bills have not yet been filed, and committees are scheduling their first meetings. Most members are working on all the preliminary work that needs to be done – such as finding co-sponsors for legislation and asking committee chairs to hear their bills.
The only minor excitement was the pre-session prayer circle/media extravaganza that formed behind my desk on the floor of the House. Representative Peggy Welch (D-Bloomington) and Representative Eric Turner (R-Marion) led a prayer in the back of the chamber before session began. As reported in the Indianapolis Star:
…led by Reps. Peggy Welsh and Eric Turner, the small group of lawmakers huddled as Welch prayed in the name of “Great I Am” while Turner prayed in the name of Jesus.
The session then opened with a speech from House Speaker Brian Bosma, who indicated this would be the practice for the days ahead.
A judge’s ruling barred the Indiana House of Representatives from invoking the name Jesus in official prayers.
I was able to explain to a few confused reporters what “I Am” means – so in spite of another reporter’s jibes, Catholics, in fact, do know their Bible.
January 4th, 2006
The House of Representatives convenes tomorrow for the start of the second regular session of the 114th Indiana General Assembly.
Two new members will be sworn in at 11am. Carlene Bottorff will be replacing her late husband, Jim Bottorff, and Dennis Tyler will be replacing the late Tiny Adams. Jim and Tiny passed away last month and will be greatly missed.
The first bill I have filed for the session is HB 1104 (not yet online, but initial draft is available here). The bill would remove from office any elected official who is more than $15,000 behind in child support payments.
Under current law, office-holders can be removed from office as a result of impeachment, felony conviction, various federal offenses (including draft-dodging and sedition), and even for “voluntary intoxication.”
Parents who fail to pay child support in other professions already face the potential penalties of losing their professional licenses, and even their driving licenses. Our elected representatives in government should face the same harsh results.
Elected officials who have failed to meet their obligations to their children have betrayed the public trust and have not lived up to their moral and legal duties. It is inappropriate for such individuals to be entrusted with taxpayer funds and the administration of laws.
The official press release on the legislation is available here.
I have four more bills that will be filed in the coming days, and I will post more about them when they are ready. I look forward to covering developments in the General Assembly this year, and welcome any feedback, comments, or questions.
January 3rd, 2006
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