Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2763, S.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to establish the Hawaii Birth Defects Program within the Department of Health (DOH) to collect data on birth defects to be used for research.

DOH, Kaiser Permanente, March of Dimes Hawaii Chapter, and several individuals testified in support of this measure. The Christian Science Committee on Publication for Hawaii submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that collecting data on birth defects will provide valuable information to conduct research on preventing birth defects in the future. Approximately one out of every twenty babies born in Hawaii each year has a birth defect. The surveillance of birth defects will serve as an early warning system of environmental health threats since Hawaii is geographically isolated and cannot depend on data from neighboring states from an alert about a rise in birth defects.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2763, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2763, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.