NCSL's summary of enacted environmental health legislation from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico during 2014 is now available.
In 2014, state legislatures introduced a total of 2,794 bills related to environmental health, with 559 bills being enacted into law. Every state in legislative session in 2014 enacted at least one bill regarding environmental health.
Environmental health legislation addresses environmental factors that adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long-term human health and environmental quality, whether in the natural or man-made environment.
The 2,794 bills introduced in 2014 related to environmental health represent an increase over previous years. In 2013, a total of 2,276 bills were introduced in every state, DC and Puerto Rico, with 553 becoming enacted. In 2012, 1,381 bills were introduced with 182 being enacted from the 46 states in session.
The Environmental Health Legislation database has been divided into 12 topics:
|
2014 Environmental Health Legislation
|
Introduced
|
Enacted
|
|
Environmental Health Management
|
517
|
102
|
|
Asthma
|
5
|
5
|
|
Body Art/Tattoo
|
50
|
11
|
|
Children's Environmental Health
|
293
|
43
|
|
Drinking Water
|
182
|
44
|
|
Food Safety
|
491
|
87
|
|
Indoor Air Quality (includes mold and radon)
|
244
|
35
|
|
Pesticides (includes mosquito control)
|
137
|
27
|
|
Swimming Pools
|
41
|
12
|
|
Toxics and Chemicals (includes asbestos, lead, and mercury)
|
606
|
92
|
|
Tracking, Surveillance, and Biomonitoring
|
11
|
2
|
|
Water/Waste Water
|
335
|
76
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Legislative Database: NCSL tracks environmental health legislation via the NCSL Environmental Health Legislative Database.
Legislators and legislative staff are able to look up bill text via our Bill Information Services (BIS). All visitors to this site may click "Bill Text Lookup" next to each state to search for specific bills on state legislative web pages.
Doug Farquhar is program director for environmental health at NCSL. Email Doug.