Bill Text: FL S1346 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: School Backpack Awareness Month

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-05 - Died, not introduced, companion bill(s) passed, see HR 8063 (Adopted) [S1346 Detail]

Download: Florida-2017-S1346-Introduced.html

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       Florida Senate - 2017                            (NP)    SR 1346
       
       
        
       By Senator Torres
       
       
       
       
       
       15-01347-17                                           20171346__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing August 2017 as “School
    3         Backpack Awareness Month” in Florida.
    4  
    5         WHEREAS, overloaded school backpacks are increasingly
    6  becoming a serious health risk for students nationwide, and
    7         WHEREAS, because a child’s spinal ligaments and muscles are
    8  not fully developed until after the child attains 16 years of
    9  age, overloaded school backpacks are a source of repeated low
   10  level stress that may result in chronic neck, shoulder, or back
   11  pain in children, and
   12         WHEREAS, according to the United States Consumer Product
   13  Safety Commission, more than 7,000 emergency room visits each
   14  year are due to school-backpack-related injuries, and
   15         WHEREAS, in 2010 alone, physicians’ offices, clinics, and
   16  hospital emergency rooms in the United States treated nearly
   17  28,000 strains, sprains, dislocations, and fractures resulting
   18  from improperly worn or overloaded school backpacks, and
   19         WHEREAS, studies have shown heavy loads carried on the back
   20  have the potential to damage the soft tissues of the shoulder,
   21  causing microstructural damage to the nerves and damage to
   22  internal organs, and
   23         WHEREAS, studies have shown an increase in curvatures of
   24  the spine and compressed intervertebral height when a school
   25  backpack exceeds 10 percent of a child’s body weight, and
   26         WHEREAS, more than 90 percent of students carry school
   27  backpacks, which studies have found to weigh as much as 25
   28  percent of the child’s body weight, and
   29         WHEREAS, the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study showed
   30  low-back pain as the number one cause of disability worldwide,
   31  while musculoskeletal disorders were the second cause, and
   32         WHEREAS, children’s textbooks are much heavier now than
   33  they were many years ago and, in addition to textbooks, students
   34  often carry computers, cell phones, water bottles, running
   35  shoes, band instruments, and other equipment, and
   36         WHEREAS, school backpacks are often worn incorrectly,
   37  increasing the weight on the shoulders and forcing the child to
   38  lean forward when walking or stoop forward when standing to
   39  compensate for the extra weight, NOW, THEREFORE,
   40  
   41  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   42  
   43         That August 2017 is recognized as “School Backpack
   44  Awareness Month” in Florida to promote awareness of the
   45  potentially serious and damaging long-term health effects of
   46  carrying overloaded or improperly worn school backpacks.
   47         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, in collaboration with
   48  community-based organizations and parent-teacher associations,
   49  school districts statewide are encouraged to educate students,
   50  parents, and school personnel regarding the health risks of
   51  wearing an overloaded school backpack and the ways in which
   52  students may properly load and wear their school backpacks.