093_HB1717eng

 
HB1717 Engrossed                     LRB093 04841 MKM 04897 b

 1        AN ACT in relation to public health.

 2        Be  it  enacted  by  the People of the State of Illinois,
 3    represented in the General Assembly:

 4        Section 5.   The  Department  of  Public  Health  Act  is
 5    amended by changing Section 2 as follows:

 6        (20 ILCS 2305/2) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 22)
 7        Sec. 2.  Powers.
 8        (a)  The  State  Department  of Public Health has general
 9    supervision of the interests of the health and lives  of  the
10    people  of the State.  It has supreme authority in matters of
11    quarantine, and may declare and enforce quarantine when  none
12    exists,  and  may modify or relax quarantine when it has been
13    established.  The Department may  adopt,  promulgate,  repeal
14    and  amend  rules  and  regulations  and  make  such sanitary
15    investigations and inspections as it may from  time  to  time
16    deem  necessary  for  the preservation and improvement of the
17    public health, consistent with law regulating the following:
18             (1)  Transportation  of  the  remains  of   deceased
19        persons.
20             (2)  Sanitary  practices  relating to drinking water
21        made accessible to the public for  human  consumption  or
22        for lavatory or culinary purposes.
23             (3)  Sanitary   practices   relating  to  rest  room
24        facilities made accessible to the public  or  to  persons
25        handling food served to the public.
26             (4)  Sanitary  practices  relating  to  disposal  of
27        human  wastes  in  or from all buildings and places where
28        people live, work or assemble.
29        The provisions of the Illinois  Administrative  Procedure
30    Act  are  hereby  expressly  adopted  and  shall apply to all
31    administrative rules and  procedures  of  the  Department  of
 
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 1    Public Health under this Act, except that Section 5-35 of the
 2    Illinois  Administrative Procedure Act relating to procedures
 3    for rule-making does not apply to the adoption  of  any  rule
 4    required   by  federal  law  in  connection  with  which  the
 5    Department  is  precluded  by   law   from   exercising   any
 6    discretion.
 7        All  local  boards  of  health,  health  authorities  and
 8    officers,  police  officers,  sheriffs and all other officers
 9    and employees of the state or any locality shall enforce  the
10    rules and regulations so adopted.
11        The  Department  of  Public Health shall conduct a public
12    information campaign to inform Hispanic  women  of  the  high
13    incidence  of  breast cancer and the importance of mammograms
14    and where to obtain a  mammogram.  This  requirement  may  be
15    satisfied by translation into Spanish and distribution of the
16    breast  cancer  summaries required by Section 2310-345 of the
17    Department of Public Health Powers and Duties  Law  (20  ILCS
18    2310/2310-345). The information provided by the Department of
19    Public  Health shall include (i) a statement that mammography
20    is the most accurate method for making an early detection  of
21    breast  cancer, however, no diagnostic tool is 100% effective
22    and (ii) instructions for performing breast  self-examination
23    and  a  statement  that  it  is important to perform a breast
24    self-examination monthly.
25        The Department of Public  Health  shall  investigate  the
26    causes  of  dangerously  contagious  or  infectious diseases,
27    especially when existing in epidemic form, and take means  to
28    restrict  and  suppress  the  same, and whenever such disease
29    becomes, or threatens to become epidemic, in any locality and
30    the local board of health or  local  authorities  neglect  or
31    refuse  to  enforce efficient measures for its restriction or
32    suppression  or  to  act  with   sufficient   promptness   or
33    efficiency,  or  whenever  the local board of health or local
34    authorities neglect or refuse to promptly  enforce  efficient
 
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 1    measures  for  the  restriction or suppression of dangerously
 2    contagious or infectious diseases, the Department  of  Public
 3    Health  may  enforce  such  measures as it deems necessary to
 4    protect the public health,  and  all  necessary  expenses  so
 5    incurred shall be paid by the locality for which services are
 6    rendered.
 7        (b)  Subject  to  the  provisions  of subsection (c), the
 8    Department may order a person to be quarantined  or  isolated
 9    or  a place to be closed and made off limits to the public to
10    prevent the probable spread of a  dangerously  contagious  or
11    infectious   disease,  including  non-compliant  tuberculosis
12    patients, until such time as the condition can  be  corrected
13    or  the  danger to the public health eliminated or reduced in
14    such a manner that no  substantial  danger  to  the  public's
15    health any longer exists.
16        (c)  No  person  may  be  ordered  to  be  quarantined or
17    isolated and no place may be ordered to be  closed  and  made
18    off  limits  to  the  public  except  with the consent of the
19    person or owner of the place or upon the order of a court  of
20    competent   jurisdiction.   To  obtain  a  court  order,  the
21    Department, by clear and convincing evidence, must prove that
22    the public's health and welfare are significantly  endangered
23    by  a  person  with  a  dangerously  contagious or infectious
24    disease including non-compliant tuberculosis patients or by a
25    place where there is a significant amount of activity  likely
26    to  spread  a  dangerously  contagious or infectious disease.
27    The Department must also prove that    all  other  reasonable
28    means  of  correcting  the problem have been exhausted and no
29    less restrictive alternative exists.
30        (d)  This Section shall be considered supplemental to the
31    existing authority and powers of the Department and shall not
32    be construed  to  restrain  or  restrict  the  Department  in
33    protecting  the  public  health under any other provisions of
34    the law.
 
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 1        (e)  Any person who knowingly or maliciously disseminates
 2    any false information or report concerning the  existence  of
 3    any   dangerously   contagious   or   infectious  disease  in
 4    connection  with  the  Department's  power   of   quarantine,
 5    isolation and closure or refuses to comply with a quarantine,
 6    isolation   or   closure   order  is  guilty  of  a  Class  A
 7    misdemeanor.
 8        (f)  The Department of Public Health  may  establish  and
 9    maintain  a  chemical  and  bacteriologic  laboratory for the
10    examination of water and wastes, and  for  the  diagnosis  of
11    diphtheria,  typhoid  fever, tuberculosis, malarial fever and
12    such other diseases as it deems necessary for the  protection
13    of the public health.
14        As  used  in  this Act, "locality" means any governmental
15    agency which exercises power pertaining to public  health  in
16    an area less than the State.
17        The  terms  "sanitary investigations and inspections" and
18    "sanitary practices" as used in this Act shall not include or
19    apply to "Public Water Supplies" or "Sewage Works" as defined
20    in the Environmental Protection Act.
21    (Source: P.A. 91-239, eff. 1-1-00.)