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ODs support Maryland digital device use law for public schools
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The House Ways and Means Committee of the Maryland General Assembly will hear legislation Feb. 24 that directs the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to craft safety guidelines for the use of digital devices in Maryland public schools.
The legislation, HB866, “Primary and secondary education – Health and safety guidelines and procedures – Digital devices,” has 25 co-sponsors and broad bipartisan support, according to a press release from the advocacy group Screens and Kids. Delegate Steven Arentz (R-District 36) sponsored the legislation.
HB866 aims to protect Maryland students from the health hazards that medical experts have associated with daily use of digital devices, according to the release.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has regulations governing the use of computers for office workers since the 1990s, but schools have no medical oversight, the group continued.
The bill has substantial support from the state’s medical community, including the Maryland State Medical Society.
Optometrists from around the country have also voiced their support, including J. Scott Sikes, OD, a North Carolina Optometric Society education trustee, and Geoffrey Goodfellow, OD, FAAO, an associate professor at the Illinois College of Optometry and an attending optometrist in the pediatrics/binocular vision service of Illinois Eye Institute.
Nicholas Kardaras, PhD, LCSW-R, a nationally recognized addiction expert and author, commended the legislation and urged the General Assembly to pass HB866 and SB1089 to mandate medically sound classroom regulations, according to the release.
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a national advocacy organization with nearly 50,000 members that has asked Maryland lawmakers to give HB866 their “complete endorsement.”
Parents Across America is another national advocacy group endorsing the bills. The organization “has prepared extensive material about the harmful effects on children’s academic, intellectual, emotional, physical and social development when digital devices are misused and overused. We applaud the Maryland lawmakers who have responded quickly and appropriately to this critical situation.”
Maryland parents have joined forces to support the legislation as well. Advocates for Baltimore County Schools and Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County have petitioned and written to legislators in favor of the legislation. Cindy Eckard, a Queen Anne’s County parent has testified and written extensively about the need for more medical oversight of classroom digital devices. Her editorials have appeared in both the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, according to the release.
An identical bill has been cross-filed by Sen. Steve Hershey (R-District 36) and co-sponsored by Sen. James Brochin (D-District 42) and Sen. Susan Lee (D-District 16) has been referred to the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
Source: www.screensandkids.us