STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2451

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2682

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2682 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LEAD POISONING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Beginning January 1, 2025, require physicians to perform or order tests for lead poisoning in minor patients at certain intervals, and if the physician performs the test, require the results to be included in the minor patient's record of immunization;

(2) Require the Department of Health to adopt rules to implement the mandated lead poisoning testing; and

(3) Provide certain exemptions for the mandatory lead poisoning testing of minors.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and one individual.

Your Committees find that there is no safe level of lead. Even a small amount of lead in a child's blood can inhibit their ability to learn, pay attention, and succeed in school. Your Committees further find that the true prevalence of lead poisoning in the State is not known since less than one-third of children under the age of three were tested for lead poisoning in 2023.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the placement of the new section on lead poisoning testing from chapter 325, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to infectious and communicable diseases, to chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the Department of Health;

(2) Requiring the Department of Health to adopt recommendations rather than rules for the implementation of the mandated lead poisoning;

(3) Removing language that would have established certain risk-based factors for the Department of Health's adopted recommendations;

(4) Inserting language to require that the Department of Health adopt recommendations that establish that a minor residing in the State shall be considered at high risk to lead exposure and tested according to the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment guidelines for children enrolled in Medicaid; and

(5) Removing language that would have allowed the Department of Health to eliminate the lead poisoning testing requirements.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2682, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2682, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair