Joe Donnelly: “as a parent, I know there is nothing more important than the health and safety of our children. It is the most basic…”

“as a parent, I know there is nothing more important than the health and safety of our children. It is the most basic desire of any mom or dad to watch their child grow up happy and healthy and to achieve his or her God-given potentials. Sadly, for too many children in this country, the chance at a healthy life and a bright future is stunted by external environmental factors beyond their control. In some communities, in States like my home State of Indiana, with a long history of commercial and industrial manufacturing, the potential for exposure to hazardous contamination is a reality that must be constantly monitored and carefully managed. For that reason, I would like to talk about why our work on this appropriations bill that would fund agencies, including the Department of Labor, as well as Health and Human Services, is so important. Last week, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, also known as ATSDR, held a community meeting in East Chicago, IN, to discuss the ongoing impacts of lead exposure in particular neighborhoods built over an old U.S. Steel lead smelter. At the meeting, ATSDR released a report which indicated that in these neighborhoods 30 percent of children tested between 2005 and 2015 had blood lead levels above the CDC's reference level. That is 12 times higher than the national average of 2.5 percent. The impacts of lead exposure are dangerous and irreversible.…”