Help Us in Passing an Important Act

This is the letter I sent our senators...

This will only take a second, you can use my letter below (just sub in your info for mine), & I'll include the important links....

This tells about what FAAN would like you to do:
http://www.foodallergy.org/Advocacy/FAAMA.html

This gives your senator:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

This tells more about the act:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:s1232is.txt.pdf


December 27, 2007
The Honorable Kit Bond United States Senate Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Bond,
I was excited to learn that Senator Christopher Dodd asking is a sponsor of S. 1232, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act. I am confident Recently, you received a letter from asking you to join him as a sponsor & I am writing to ask that you would please consider co-sponsoring and supporting enactment of this bill.
I’m sure you’re aware that an estimated 2 million school-age children suffer from food allergies, for which there is no cure. Avoiding any and all products with allergy-causing ingredients is the only way to prevent potentially life-threatening reactions. Reactions often occur at school, including severe anaphylaxis, which can kill within minutes unless epinephrine is administered. Deaths from anaphylaxis are strongly associated with delays in the administration of epinephrine.
[My husband & I are both educators & have seen the growing trend of allergies among children. In the schools we’ve taught at, we’ve never seen an efficient system put into place. This is a scary feeling for both the eductor and the parent.]
The importance of managing life-threatening food allergies in the school setting has been recognized by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Nurses, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
[Our 4-year old daughter suffers from a life-threatening allergy to milk. Had it not been for the fast acting epinephrine injection she received after a reaction this past summer, she might not be with us. I hate to think of when she begins school, unless some guidelines are set in place.]
Unfortunately, there are no consistent, standardized guidelines to help schools safely manage students with the disease.
S. 1232 would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and make available a voluntary policy to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools. The bill would create a small program of incentive grants to assist local education agencies with adoption and implementation of food allergy management guidelines in the schools.
Passage of S. 1232 is critically important to ensure the safety of my child and the other 2 million food-allergic school-age children across the country. Please co-sponsor the bill and work for its passage.
I will be happy to talk with your staff about this important legislation and can be reached at [***-***-****].
Thank you for your consideration,
Amy Perry