Forget the federal government, no longer the champion of health. It’s more of an adversary. Healthwise, the motto for 2020 is: think locally.
Here are a few “think local” common-sense regulations that lawmakers should consider:
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Protect children in swimming pools. President George Bush in 2007, moved by the drowning of former Secretary of State James Baker’s granddaughter in a hot tub, passed the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act for public pools. Residential pools have no such federal requirements for fences, gates and latches. It falls to states, municipalities and counties to act. Twenty-one states and more than 180 local agencies have adopted the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. If your community has not, nudge it.
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Discourage soft drinks in fast-food children’s meals. In a nation plagued with a widening girth, children would benefit from milk, juice, or water as alternatives. Eighteen states have mandated alternatives, but not Rhode Island. Starting May 20, in New York City, water, juice and milk will be “default” options [parents can request soda]. This is a nanny-state regulation, but children often need nannies.
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Ban distracted driving. Drivers who are texting, talking, eating or reading are endangering themselves and others. If the mortality and morbidity statistics haven’t prodded your legislators to bar driving-while-doing-something-else, prod them.
We are urged to buy locally. It is time to legislate locally.
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Discourage teenage vaping. If the nation wants to curb vaping before it morphs into a crisis that recalls tobacco’s early days, states will have to step forth, with bans, restrictions and taxes. Twenty states tax vapes. [Vermont now levies a 92% tax on wholesale products]. Do taxes work? A 2014 study of e-cigarette sales in 52 U.S. markets found that a 10% price increase reduced sales of disposable e-cigarettes by about 12%, about 19% for reusable ones.
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Outlaw the Christian ersatz insurance schemes. These “associations,” allowed in the Affordable Care Act, have spread their marketing tentacles, urging Christians to pool monthly “dues” to help one other. The associations exclude some treatments [often those involving mental illness], they have a low cap on payments, and they can and do walk away from sick enrollees, leaving them in debt. Some states have curbed them (e.g., Washington, New Hampshire, Texas); urge your state to follow suit.
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Enact common-sense gun restrictions. While some adults may want to live in a Wild West of guns, children and battered spouses don’t. Surely we can protect them. Our hodgepodge of state and local regulations varies on waiting periods [New Mexico has none], on type of weapon outlawed [Connecticut, after the Newtown school massacre, banned a slew], on who can buy a gun, on safety latches [California requires them; Alaska doesn’t] and on rules for “ghost” guns assembled by 3D printers [California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington and New York outlaw them]. We can make it hard for people convicted of spousal abuse to get guns, make it hard for children to fire their parents’ guns and make it hard to use “ghost” guns.
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Require fire and carbon monoxide alarms. Most states require smoke alarms in residences, and require hard-wired alarms in new construction, but not all. Texas, for instance, does not require carbon monoxide alarms in residential buildings; Missouri does not require smoke alarms.
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Work toward cleaner air. States cannot do what the federal Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to do: dramatically lower automobile emissions. But states can follow California’s lead. In 2017 that state passed the Clean Air Vehicle Decal program: low- and zero-emission vehicles can use the car-pool lanes. Hardly dramatic, given the high cost of low-emission vehicles, but at least a gesture that acknowledges the problem.
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Make food safer. The below-the-fold stories broadcast the outbreaks of food contamination that can cause sickness nationwide. We cannot eliminate those risks; but public health departments can alert us to the dangers. Your legislature may want to cut the budget of your health department; argue against the cut.
We are urged to buy locally. It is time to legislate locally.
Joan Retsinas is a columnist for The Progressive Populist.
