HB 360 Proponent Testimony — Carrie Yeager, Ohio Environmental Health Association (January 22, 2020)

Summary

Proponent testimony on HB 360 given to the House Commerce and Labor Committee, Chair Gayle Manning, dated January 22, 2020, by Carrie Yeager, President of the Ohio Environmental Health Association and Environmental Health Director at Butler County General Health District. She states that the association's membership includes over 500 public health sanitarians. The testimony describes HB 360, introduced by Representative Erica Crawley and Representative Brett Hillyer, as requiring water bottle filling stations and drinking fountains in newly constructed public school buildings. It says the stations typically can filter 3,000 gallons of water per filter, which it translates to roughly 24,000 bottles of water. It closes by urging the committee's support of the bill.

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Full text

                                      HB 360 Proponent Testimony
                 Carrie Yeager, President of the Ohio Environmental Health Association
                                 House Commerce and Labor Committee
                                          Chair Gayle Manning
                                            January 22, 2020

Chair Manning, Vice Chair Dean, Ranking Member Lepore-Hagan and members of the House Commerce
and Labor Committee, my name is Carrie Yeager and I am the Environmental Health Director at Butler
County General Health District and am the President of the Ohio Environmental Health Association.
OEHA’s membership includes over 500 public health sanitarians, who are health inspectors at local health
departments, state agencies, colleges and universities and other entities. I am here to testify on behalf of
OEHA as a proponent on HB 360 introduced by Representative Erica Crawley and Representative Brett
Hillyer.

HB 360 would require water bottle filling stations and drinking fountains in newly constructed public
school buildings. These stations help fulfill a dual purpose of increasing the consumption of water by
students and staff as well as decreasing the amount of plastic waste in the waste stream. Public health
has long advocated for water to be the primary beverage of choice, especially of adolescents, to combat
obesity and improve cognitive functions. The ability to fill a container of water to drink throughout the
day will increase hydration throughout the day and minimize classroom trips to a fountain.

Water bottle filling stations are also methods by which to decrease the use of single-use purchased bottled
water. These purchased, single-use bottles, frequently end up in the land fill and can take hundreds of
years to decompose. Encouraging students and staff to utilize the water bottle filling station with a
reusable water bottle can take these plastic bottles out of the waste stream. These filling stations typically
can filter 3,000 gallons of water per filter, which translates to roughly 24,000 bottles of water that are no
longer being wasted. A water bottle filling station serves to demonstrate to students, staff and families,
that the overall health of both the student and the environment are important at Ohio schools.

Once again, Chair Manning and members of the committee, thank you for your consideration of our
testimony and we urge your support of the bill.


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