{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-bill-to-prevent-youth-suicide-passes-senate", "Curtis Bill to Prevent Youth Suicide Passes Senate", "2026-08-06", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "UT", "John R. Curtis", "C001114", "www.curtis.senate.gov", "curtis", "https://www.curtis.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014The U.S. Senate passed the Youth Poisoning Prevention Act, bipartisan legislation led by U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-UT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) to help prevent youth suicide by banning high-concentration sodium nitrite from being available to the public. Since 2017, the National Poison Data System has shown a sharp annual increase in young adults ingesting the substance with suicidal intent. There is no recognized household or consumer use for high-concentration sodium nitrite, yet the sale of this dangerous substance by retailers remains unregulated, resulting in tragic consequences.\n\n\u201cToo many young people are being put at risk by easy access to dangerous poisons,\u201d said Senator Curtis. \u201cI am proud to see our commonsense legislation to help protect vulnerable Americans, strengthen consumer safety, and prevent needless youth tragedies pass the Senate.\u201d\n\n\u201cHigh-concentration sodium nitrite is a textbook example of a deadly product that should never be sold to consumers\u2014let alone to our kids,\u201d said Senator Duckworth. \u201cEvery child\u2019s life is precious. We must ensure that our laws protecting our kids are up to date to protect against emerging deadly hazards. Our bipartisan legislation would immediately take this lethal substance off the shelves\u2014it\u2019s a no-brainer that must be sent to the President\u2019s desk swiftly to help us protect our children.\u201d\n\n\u201cI heard from a family who lost their daughter to this dangerous substance, and we have to do more to make sure no other American family suffers the same heartache,\u201d said Senator Baldwin. \u201cAs new, deadly products like sodium nitrite become available to children, we must update our laws to keep these deadly chemicals out of the hands of our kids and prevent any further tragic deaths. I am proud to have worked with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to protect Wisconsin families, and I am glad that we are now one step closer to making our bill the law of the land.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nThe Youth Poisoning Prevention Act would:\n\nBan the sale of high-concentration sodium nitrite to consumers by adding such products to the list of banned hazardous products under the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2057);\n\nDefine \u201chigh concentration of sodium nitrite\u201d as a concentration of sodium nitrite greater than 10% (as there is no recognized household or consumer use of high-concentration sodium nitrite); and\n\nNot interfere with the highly regulated use of high-concentration sodium nitrite for commercial and industrial purposes.\n\nThe full text of the bill can be found here.\n\nThe Youth Poisoning Prevention Act is endorsed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics, Consumer Reports, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Public Citizen, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League and Crisis Text Line\u2014as well as a number of families who tragically lost their children to self-poisoning via high-concentration sodium nitrite ingestion.\n\n\u201cThis law was written in the names of children who should still be alive,\u201d said Kristin J\u00f3nsson, mother of the late Kristine J\u00f3nsson. \u201cFor years, high-purity sodium nitrite was sold with no guardrails despite mounting evidence that it had become a preferred suicide method. Today, we chose public health over preventable tragedy.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery parent who came forward with me did so with one hope: that no other family would have to live this nightmare,\u201d said Ruth Scott, mother of the late Mikael Scott. \u201cWe fought in our children\u2019s names, and today their lives have left a legacy that will protect others.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe best wrongful death case is the one that never has to be filed,\u201d said an attorney for the grieving families. \u201cThis law recognizes that prevention is always more powerful than accountability after the fact. Today, this country chose to save lives instead of counting them.\u201d", 1, "2026-08-08T05:41:38Z", "2026-08-08T05:43:24Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-bill-to-prevent-youth-suicide-passes-senate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1212541721761227, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}