Political Quotes

“I offer this amendment to this legislation that will ensure that the public health of Americans is protected under the bill. In December of last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released their Healthy People 2020 report. And this report is a culmination of a major undertaking initiated under the Bush administration and completed by the Obama administration. It sets goals and objectives with 10-year targets designed to guide national health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve the health of all people in the United States. In Healthy People 2020, HHS sets a goal to reduce the American people's exposure to mercury. Mercury can cause aggravated asthma, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and premature death in people with heart and lung disease. In addition, mercury is a potent neurotoxin. It is toxic to all of us, but it's particularly dangerous to our children. That's why as part of the Healthy People 2020 report, HHS set a goal to reduce concentrations of mercury found in children's blood samples by 30 percent by 2020. Children who are exposed to mercury during pregnancy can suffer from a range of developmental and neurological abnormalities, including delayed onset of walking, delayed onset of talking, cerebral palsy, and learning disabilities. The National Academy of Sciences estimates that each year about 60,000 children may be born in the U.S.…”