BILL NUMBER: SB 257 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Pavley
FEBRUARY 24, 2009
An act to add Chapter 5.3 (commencing with Section 19994.10) to
Part 2.6 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to
lactation accommodation, state employees.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 257, as introduced, Pavley. lactation accommodation, state
employees.
Existing law requires employers, including the state, to provide a
reasonable amount of break time to employees desiring to express
breast milk. Employers are also required to make reasonable efforts
to provide the use of a room, or other location, other than a toilet
stall, in close proximity to the employees' work area, for the
employee to express milk in private.
This bill would require every state agency and department,
including local offices, to notify each female employee nearing
maternity leave, through its usual channels of communication with
state employees, of the provisions described above relating to
lactation accommodation and the Employees' Guide to Breastfeeding and
Working prepared by the Health Resources and Services Administration
of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, or a
similar comprehensive publication. The bill would provide that
referral of the employee to an Internet Web site where that
information may be located shall satisfy these requirements.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Scientific evidence shows that breast-feeding strengthens an
infant's immune system and protects infants' health in many ways, by
preventing disease and other adverse health conditions, and is also
beneficial to the mother's health.
(b) The United States Surgeon General, the United States
Preventive Services Task Force, the American Academy of Pediatrics,
and all other major health organizations, recommend that, unless
there are specific contraindications, babies be exclusively
breast-fed (meaning no food or drink other than breast milk) for the
first six months, with continued breast-feeding and the addition of
appropriate foods up to at least one year, as long as it is mutually
desired.
(c) Breast-fed babies are likely to have fewer ear, respiratory,
and intestinal infections; less frequent allergies and asthma; and
less risk of developing sudden infant death syndrome or chronic
diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, leukemia, obesity, and
high cholesterol.
(d) Exclusive breast-feeding for three months is estimated to
reduce health care costs for infants in the first year alone by up to
four hundred seventy-five dollars ($475), compared to nonbreast-fed
infants. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that a
minimum of three billion six hundred million dollars
($3,600,000,000) in medical expenses annually would be saved if the
number of children breast-fed for six months were to increase by 50
percent.
(e) Breast-feeding is also linked to reducing the risk of obesity.
Childhood obesity is a major public health policy concern.
Approximately 28 percent of California schoolage children are
overweight or obese. Children who are overweight or obese are at
heightened risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, and
type 2 diabetes, among other serious physical problems. Type 2
diabetes is a particular concern, as it is now being found in
children at increasing rates. Being overweight or obese in childhood
also increases the risk of obesity in adolescence and adulthood.
Medical expenses attributable to obesity cost Californians seven
billion seven hundred million dollars ($7,700,000,000) each year,
with one billion seven hundred million dollars ($1,700,000,000) paid
by Medi-Cal.
(f) The California Obesity Prevention Plan highlights
breast-feeding as a key strategy. The federal government's Healthy
People 2010 goals seek to increase breast-feeding initiation (any
breast milk) to at least 75 percent of babies, with at least 40
percent of babies exclusively breast-feeding at three months, at
least 50 percent of babies having some breast milk at six months, and
at least 17 percent of babies exclusively breast-feeding at six
months.
(g) Only 42.7 percent of mothers of newborns breast-feed
exclusively in California hospitals after giving birth according to
the most recent data available (2007) from the State Department of
Public Health. Less than 18 percent of California mothers breast-feed
exclusively when their infants are six months old, according to the
United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(h) Women who breast-feed their babies for longer periods accrue
significant health benefits. Breast-feeding is linked to a reduction
in risk for breast and ovarian cancers, osteoporosis, and type 2
diabetes. The practice has a contraceptive effect, which can lengthen
the time between pregnancies and help make the next child healthier.
Financially, breast-feeding means families save on food costs and
healthcare expenses. Working women who breast-feed take fewer days
off to care for a sick child and are less likely to incur the expense
of a caretaker.
(i) Since 2001, state law has required every employer, including
the state and any political subdivision, to provide a reasonable
amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express
breast milk for her infant child, subject to the requirements of
Sections 1030 to 1033, inclusive, of the Labor Code.
(j) Better communication between the state as an employer and its
employees about the breast-feeding accommodation requirements of
Sections 1030 to 1033, inclusive, of the Labor Code is necessary to
help promote and support breast-feeding among state employees, for
the benefit of the state.
SEC. 2. Chapter 5.3 (commencing with Section 19994.10) is added to
Part 2.6 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:
CHAPTER 5.3. LACTATION ACCOMMODATION
19994.10. (a) Through its usual channels of communication with
state employees, every state agency and department, including local
offices, shall notify each female employee nearing maternity leave of
the following information:
(1) The provisions of Sections 1030 to 1033, inclusive, of the
Labor Code.
(2) The Employees' Guide to Breastfeeding and Working published in
2008 by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services, or a similar
comprehensive publication addressing the issue of employees
breast-feeding at work that is prepared by the federal government,
the State Department of Public Health, or a medical, other health, or
breast-feeding support organization.
(b) Referral of the employee to an Internet Web site where the
information described in subdivision (a) may be located shall satisfy
the requirements of this section.