“Feel good” EpiPen law a life saver
We published a letter to the editor a few months back in which the writer took to task Gov. Patrick Quinn “and his cronies” for enacting “touchy feely feel good” legislation instead of creating jobs or dealing with the state’s precarious financial situation.
And we can understand the letter writer’s frustration. But we don’t subscribe to the theory that politicians can deal with only one issue at a time. And we certainly disagree with the letter writer when the first “touchy feely” legislation he would have ignored has the potential to save lives of schoolchildren.
Thankfully, Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk also disagree. This week, Illinois’ two senators — a Democrat and a Republican — said they hope to expand Illinois’ new law regarding EpiPen availability to schools nationwide.
The Illinois legislature deserves kudos for the law signed this summer by Quinn and sponsored chiefly by state Rep. Chris Nybo, an Elmhurst Republican, and state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat.
The law allows schools to stock and administer epinephrine for students who don’t have a prescription through the use of an injector known as an EpiPen. Previously, only students who had a prescription for their own EpiPen could have it stored and administered at school.
“Some kids never know they’re allergic to something until they’re exposed to it,” Nybo told our Springfield reporter Mike Riopell.
“I think it’s common-sense legislation,” Kirk said this week at a news conference with Durbin to announce legislation that would reward states that require schools to maintain a supply of EpiPens. “It takes the one legal impediment of a liability concern and takes it off the table.”
Said Durbin, “It could literally save a child’s life.”
We’re pleased to see Kirk and Durbin co-sponsoring the legislation as they keep to their pledge to work together on a variety of topics despite their ideological differences.
“Growing numbers of children suffer from life-threatening food allergies,” said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in a written release praising the senators’ efforts. “In Illinois we were able to eliminate bureaucratic barriers that previously prevented schools from acting when a child could be suffering from a severe allergic reaction but whose medical records didn’t reflect an allergy diagnosis.”
Madigan’s office cites the Journal of Pediatrics saying one in four cases of childhood anaphylaxis occur in children who were not previously diagnosed with a food or other severe allergy.
While we certainly want both our state and federal representatives to deal with the significant economic issues of the day, we are happy that they are not ignoring important business that otherwise could be swept up in the partisan politics so common in both Springfield and Washington.