2012 New York Consolidated Laws
PBH - Public Health
Article 27-A - (2705 - 2706) OSTEOPOROSIS PREVENTATION AND EDUCATION
2705 - Legislative findings and declarations.

 
    §  2705. Legislative findings and declarations. The legislature hereby
  finds and declares that osteoporosis is a  public  health  problem  that
  poses  a  threat  to  the  health  and  quality  of  life  to as many as
  twenty-four million Americans; and that it may ultimately affect as many
  as half of all women in the United States over the age of forty-five and
  an increasing number of men; and costs the nation ten billion dollars  a
  year  in hospitalization and treatment for resulting injuries, including
  chronic disability, pain, and the need for long term care.
    The legislature further finds  and  declares  that  over  one  million
  fractures a year result from osteoporosis and that the pain, discomfort,
  immobility  and  social  isolation that may result from fractures affect
  quality of life, threaten people's ability  to  live  independently  and
  costs millions annually in nursing home and assistive care.
    The  legislature  further  finds  and  declares  that a plan should be
  established to insure  the  availability  of  comprehensive  educational
  services in communities, and that such services include awareness of the
  disease,   its   rate  of  incidence,  risk  factors,  facts  about  its
  progression, and implications during pregnancy, the peri-menopausal  and
  post-menopausal years, and in later life; education about the prevention
  of   osteoporosis   including  nutrition,  positive  health  habits  and
  exercise, and their benefits from an early age; education regarding  the
  availability  and  significance  of  diagnostic  screening  as  well  as
  predisposing factors including genetic disposition and interventions for
  those who already have bone mass loss or those who may be at  high  risk
  of bone mass loss; education about available and experimental treatments
  and the benefits, risks, and side effects of each.
    The  legislature  hereby  finds and declares that educating the public
  about this potentially devastating disease is  of  paramount  importance
  and  that  educating the public throughout the state is in every respect
  in the public interest and to the  benefit of all persons in this state.