DoingItLocal

HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the Connecticut Interagency PFAS Task Force, the group he created this summer and tasked with making recommendations for him to consider that address the potential harmful effects of a widely-used class of chemicals known as PFAS, has transmitted to his office its final action plan.

 

The plan recommends testing water supplies across the state, reducing the sources of PFAS in the environment, and cleaning up known contamination due to this class of emerging pollutants.

 

“I applaud the work of this task force, which is the result of a collaborative effort among public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders coming together to address an emerging contaminant with real impacts globally, nationally, and right here in Connecticut,” Governor Ned Lamont said. “I look forward to working with stakeholders to take the steps necessary to further protect the health of our citizens and our environment from these chemicals, which are so pervasive in consumer products and industrial processes.”

 

Key recommendations include:

 

·         Testing public drinking water through a phased approach that prioritizes drinking water sources most vulnerable to PFAS pollution or that serve vulnerable populations, and communicating and educating public water systems customers and stakeholders;

·         Working to develop a Safe Drinking Water Advisory Council to advise the commissioner of Department of Public Health on potentially setting a maximum contaminant level for PFAS;

·         Identifying and evaluating other sources of human exposure to PFAS including fish, shellfish and agricultural products;

·         Minimizing occupational exposure to PFAS by Continue reading Governor Receives Plan On Harmful Gas

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) this week introduced the ELEVATE Act (S.2761), bicameral legislation that will ensure states receive the federal funding necessary to provide high-quality instruction to students learning English. Specifically this legislation will correct a flawed funding formula the U.S. Department of Education uses to allocate funds to states by fully capturing the number of K-12 students who relocate to the mainland from Puerto Rico. This bill would allow Puerto Rican students to be fully counted in the annual grant allocation that states receive under the English Language Acquisition grant program. Correcting this flaw will be especially helpful to states like Connecticut and Florida, which have large and growing Puerto Rican populations. 

 

Between 2010 and 2017, Connecticut’s Puerto Rican population increased from 264,000 to 292,000—an 11 percent jump. Florida’s Puerto Rican population rose from 864,000 to 1.1 million—a 27 percent increase.

 

“As the son of a former English language learning teacher, I know how important it is that we adequately fund these programs in our schools. The failure to completely count newly arrived kids from Puerto Rico is unfair and I’m glad this legislation will make sure that states like Connecticut, with large numbers of families coming here from Puerto Rico, will get the funding they deserve,” Sen. Murphy said.

 

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#WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), on Thursday introduced a bipartisan resolution designating October as “Health Literacy Month.”

“Managing your health care benefit shouldn’t be so complicated to understand. Improving health literacy will go a long way toward reducing barriers to care and bringing down the health costs for the people of Connecticut. I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this important resolution just days before open enrollment season begins,” said Murphy.

“Improving health literacy could help lower rates of diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure as more people understand symptoms, nutrition, and fitness. I joined this resolution to encourage people in places like Mississippi to become proactive in understanding their health needs and making suitable health decisions,” said Hyde-Smith.

“Ensuring Americans have the ability to access and understand basic health information will help patients and caretakers better understand their options and make more informed decisions. What’s more, increasing health literacy can lower healthcare costs for individuals and reduce the burden on our healthcare system nationwide. I’m proud to join in introducing this resolution, and I will continue working to expand access to resources that will improve healthcare outcomes across the board,” said Van Hollen.

“Health Literacy Month empowers Americans to make smart, proactive choices that enhances quality of life and generate substantial cost savings across the American health care system,” said Scott. “This resolution raises awareness of the importance of efforts and initiatives at every level to improve health literacy, where we too often fall short.”

 

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