Bill Text: HI HR20 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii House Resolution 20 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Urging School Administrators, Teachers, Parents, And Students To Be Educated About The Potential Health Impact Of Heavy Backpacks And To Take Proactive Measures To Avoid Injury.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-03-29 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on HLT with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Aquino, Oshiro, Say, Thielen excused (4). [HR20 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2017-HR20-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	20
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2017
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

URging SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, TEACHERS, PARENTS, AND STUDENTS to BE EDUCATED ABOUT THE POTENTIAL HEALTH IMPACT OF HEAVY BACKPACKS AND to TAKE PROACTIVE MEASURES TO AVOID INJURY.

WHEREAS, overloaded school backpacks are causing an increasing problem of back pain and spinal strain for students across the nation; and

WHEREAS, because spinal ligaments and muscles are not fully developed until after the age of sixteen, overweight backpacks are a source of repeated low-level stress that may result in chronic neck, shoulder, or back pain in children; and

WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than seven thousand emergency room visits each year are due to backpack-related injuries; and

WHEREAS, in 2010 alone, physicians' offices, clinics, and hospital emergency rooms treated nearly twenty-eight thousand strains, sprains, dislocations, and fractures from backpacks; and

WHEREAS, studies show that heavy loads carried on the back have the potential to damage the soft tissues of the shoulder, causing microstructural damage to the nerves and damage to internal organs; and

WHEREAS, studies show an increase in curvatures of the spine and compressed intervertebral height when backpacks exceed ten per cent of a child's body weight; and

WHEREAS, the Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010 shows back pain and musculoskeletal disorders as the leading causes of disability worldwide; and

WHEREAS, children's textbooks are much heavier now than many years ago, and in addition to textbooks, students often carry computers, cell phones, water bottles, running shoes, band instruments, and other equipment considered essential to have readily available; and

WHEREAS, more than ninety per cent of students carry backpacks that studies show weigh as much as twenty-five per cent of the child's body weight; and

WHEREAS, backpacks are often not worn correctly but are frequently slung over one shoulder or allowed to hang significantly below the waistline, increasing the weight on the shoulders and making the child lean forward when walking or stoop forward when standing to compensate for the weight; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2017, that we strongly urge all school administrators, teachers, parents, and students to be educated about the potential health impact of heavy backpacks and to take proactive measures to avoid injury; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that schools should work with their parent-teacher associations to assess the extent to which students use overweight backpacks and to promote innovative homework strategies, lessening the need to take all school materials and books back and forth each day; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that schools should consider the following points when developing their backpack education talking points:

(1) Encourage children to use backpacks that weigh no more than a maximum of ten per cent of the child's body weight;

(2) Encourage the use of ergonomic backpacks with individualized compartments to efficiently hold books and equipment;

(3) Encourage children to wear both shoulder straps and not sling the backpack over one shoulder;

(4) Encourage the use of wide, padded adjustable straps to fit a child's body;

(5) Encourage leaving the heaviest books at school and the use of handouts or workbooks for homework assignments;

(6) Consider increased usage of e-textbooks as federal and state funding becomes available; and

(7) Consider integrated education about backpacks by using a hanging scale in the classroom, allowing students to weigh backpacks, enter the results into a graph to track the weights, and look at the data to determine what can be done to lighten loads; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Superintendent of Education, the Chairperson of the Board of Education, the Director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, and the Executive Director of the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission.