Legislative Session number- 84

Bill Name: SF0979

1E "Healthy Minnesotans Biomonitoring Program"; requiring the commissioner of
health to provide community based biomonitoring on a voluntary and confidential
basis using biospecimens to identify toxic chemicals in the environment,
defining biomonitoring and biospecimens; requiring the examination of breast
milk in economically, racially and geographically diverse communities for toxic
chemical identification purposes, requiring expansion of the program upon the
availability of funds; requiring the commissioner upon detecting a toxic
chemical in a program participant in consultation with the commissioners of
agriculture, natural resources (DNR) and the pollution control agency (PCA) to
examine the possible presence of the chemical in the surrounding environment and
to develop recommendations to reduce or minimize possible contamination or
exposure; providing for voluntary participation in the program, classifying data
collected as non public health data; requiring the commissioner to develop
program guidelines, authorizing contractual agreements with health clinics,
community based organizations or experts to perform the activities; requiring
commissioner establishment of the healthy Minnesotans biomonitoring program
advisory panel, specifying certain membership requirements and creating
scientific and community representative committees, specifying membership and
recommendation duties; requiring the commissioner to identify and list toxic
chemicals to be included in the scope of the program and to prioritize the
chemicals according to the threat to public health; creating a healthy
Minnesotans biomonitoring program account in the special revenue fund and
appropriating money in the account to the commissioner for program
implementation purposes; requiring the commissioner to report to the legislature
by a certain date summarizing the initial activities of the program and to
subsequently submit biennial reports describing the effectiveness of the
program, requiring dissemination of the reports on the department web site

(rt)