Youth Poisoning Protection Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. TRAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I am grateful to Ranking Member Pallone, Chair Rodgers, Ranking Member Schakowsky, Chairman Bilirakis, and members of the Energy and Commerce Committee for their unanimous support for this bipartisan, bicameral legislation.

Mr. Speaker, the Youth Poisoning Protection Act is urgently needed to limit consumer access to high concentrations of a dangerous toxic chemical that is being promoted online as a method to die by suicide.

Two years ago, an investigation by The New York Times exposed online suicide assistance forums, websites that operate in the shadows of the internet. These platforms are home to many users who present themselves as a community dedicated to helping others experiencing suicidal ideation, but who instead encourage those in dire need of help to end their lives and even help facilitate their attempt to do so.

Their activities have contributed to a rise in suicides using the chemical sodium nitrite, which in low concentrations is safe and often used to cure meat and fish.

However, in high concentrations, sodium nitrite is toxic at levels comparable to cyanide.

If that is not bad enough, it gets worse.

While those same anonymous users promote the poison as a painless way to die by suicide, survivors tell a very different story, detailing experiences of nausea, vomiting, intense stomach pain, and heart palpitations as the substance chokes off oxygen to critical organs.

When notified by my office of the product's popularization as a suicide method, many websites that sold the product, including Amazon, eventually took down their listings or limited sales to businesses with a proven use for it.

There are bad actors out there looking to capitalize on people experiencing suicidal ideation by creating websites for the sole purpose of selling the chemical as suicide kits. Right now there is no law on the books to stop them from doing so.

Mr. Speaker, the Youth Poisoning Protection Act changes that by prohibiting the consumer sale of sodium nitrite products with a concentration higher than 10 percent--the usefulness threshold agreed upon by independent experts.

I will note for my colleagues that this bill solely limits the sale of this product to consumers. There are some businesses that cure meat and fish in bulk and need to purchase sodium nitrite in high concentrations as part of that process. This bill will not affect them.

It solely seeks to end the straight-to-consumer sale of highly concentrated sodium nitrite that is helping fuel the efforts of anonymous suicide forum users pushing vulnerable people to end their lives.

This bill is simple, it is straightforward, and it has the potential to save lives.

That is why I am so grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both Chambers who were instrumental in the drafting and advancement of this legislation, including Representative Mike Carey who has been a tireless advocate for his constituents who have fallen victim to this poison, as well as Representatives Katie Porter and Celeste Maloy and Senators Tammy Duckworth and J.D. Vance.

I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to join us in supporting this strong bipartisan legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source