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To express the General Assembly's support of | 1 |
increasing public awareness of and education on | 2 |
the importance of folic acid in the diets of women | 3 |
of childbearing age. | 4 |
WHEREAS, Sufficient folic acid in women's diets before and | 5 |
during pregnancy can reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain | 6 |
and spinal cord known as neural tube defects; and | 7 |
WHEREAS, Neural tube defects occur in about one out of every | 8 |
one thousand pregnancies in the United States; and | 9 |
WHEREAS, Studies have shown that neural tube defects could be | 10 |
prevented if women consume the proper amounts of folic acid before | 11 |
becoming pregnant and during early pregnancy; and | 12 |
WHEREAS, The Food and Nutrition Board of the National | 13 |
Academies' Institute of Medicine, the United States Public Health | 14 |
Service, and the United States Preventative Services Task Force | 15 |
recommend that women who are of childbearing age should consume | 16 |
four hundred micrograms of synthetic folic acid every day from a | 17 |
vitamin or from fortified foods, in addition to eating a healthy | 18 |
diet rich in natural sources of folate; and | 19 |
WHEREAS, The March of Dimes found that while public awareness | 20 |
is improving and eighty-four per cent of women have heard of folic | 21 |
acid, only thirty-nine per cent take a daily vitamin containing | 22 |
folate, only twenty per cent know that folic acid prevents birth | 23 |
defects, and only eleven per cent know it should be taken before | 24 |
pregnancy; and | 25 |
WHEREAS, The March of Dimes found that health professionals | 26 |
have not been the main source of women's information and awareness | 27 |
about folic acid since forty-nine per cent of the women who | 28 |
learned about folic acid did so from the media as compared to | 29 |
thirty-three per cent who learned about folic acid from their | 30 |
physicians or other healthcare providers; now therefore be it | 31 |
RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 129th General Assembly | 32 |
of the State of Ohio, in adopting this resolution, express our | 33 |
support of increasing public awareness of and education on the | 34 |
importance of folic acid in the diets of women of childbearing age | 35 |
to help prevent neural tube defects; and be it further | 36 |
RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 129th General Assembly | 37 |
of the State of Ohio, suggest that the Ohio Department of Health, | 38 |
State Medical Board of Ohio, Ohio Board of Nursing, Ohio State | 39 |
Board of Pharmacy, and the Ohio Department of Insurance | 40 |
collaborate when engaging in any effort to increase public | 41 |
awareness of and education on the importance of folic acid. | 42 |