Bill Text: CA ACR156 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Awareness Day.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 50-21-1)
Status: (Passed) 2018-02-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 12, Statutes of 2018. [ACR156 Detail]
Download: California-2017-ACR156-Chaptered.html
| Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 156 |
| CHAPTER 12 |
Relative to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
February 22, 2018.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 156, Gonzalez Fletcher.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Awareness Day.
This measure would proclaim January 30, 2018, as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Awareness Day and would recognize the efforts of advocacy organizations like the Faces of CTE in educating the public about the causes and dangers of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and supporting the victims of the disease.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: NOBill Text
WHEREAS, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that appears in persons with a history of repetitive brain trauma sustained over a period of years; and
WHEREAS, CTE was first described in 1928 by Dr. Harrison Martland in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association linking brain injury and boxing; and
WHEREAS, It was not until 2002 that Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered the first pathological evidence of CTE in a professional football player and, together with his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, published the details of his groundbreaking findings in 2005; and
WHEREAS, CTE is caused by a buildup of an abnormal protein called Tau in the brain leading to brain cell death; and
WHEREAS, The risk of developing CTE is greatest with athletes, military veterans, and domestic violence survivors, who frequently endure repeated sub-concussive blows to the head from playing contact sports, traumatic injury from military training or blasting, or hits sustained by partners or caretakers; and
WHEREAS, While symptoms associated with CTE, such as sleep disturbances, memory loss, tremors, addictions, progressive dementia, depression, suicidal thoughts, impaired judgment, and paranoia, most often present themselves years or decades after the brain trauma or blows cease, symptoms associated with CTE have been found in a patient as young as eighteen years old; and
WHEREAS, Currently, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed after death through postmortem neuropathological analysis; and
WHEREAS, Advocacy organizations, health care providers, and institutional researchers are dedicated to studying the cause and symptoms of CTE in order to enable parents and families to make informed decisions regarding the best interests of their children in youth sports and to develop an earlier diagnostic tool so patients may address these symptoms as early as possible; and
WHEREAS, One such advocacy organization is the Faces of CTE, founded by the California families of the following athletes: Junior Seau and Grant Feasel, who suffered from CTE after playing youth, high school, and college football, and the NFL; Tyler Cornell, who played youth and high school football; and Paul Bright Jr., who only played football from the ages of seven to fifteen; and
WHEREAS, The mission of the Faces of CTE is to put a face on the mind-robbing disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and educate the public that CTE does not only impact professional athletes, but children and non-athletes as well; and
WHEREAS, The Faces of CTE founded CTE Awareness Day on January 30, 2017, and now, along with other organizations, celebrates CTE Awareness Day across the United States in order to reflect on those lost to CTE, how to help those suffering with the disease, and, most importantly, how to stop the disease; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby declares January 30, 2018, as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Awareness Day and CTE Awareness Day in California; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
