To develop a sense of responsibility, qualities of leadership, and an awareness of the capacities of all people.

To provide an inner satisfaction, a sense of awe and wonder, and a deep enjoyment for both girl and leader.

To provide a sense of accomplishment.

To stimulate each girl's awareness of the scope of the natural world.

To develop the individual's sense of responsibility to conserve the natural world.

It is our feeling that, although every group which goes camping may not have such specific and comprehensive objectives, that some sense of these objectives is a meaningful addition to the language that appears in the existing bill. We have, therefore, replaced "a camp, as the term is generally understood" (Sec. 3(1)).

Sec. 3. For purposes of this Act

DEFINITIONS

(1) The term "youth camp" means a resident, day, troop or travel camp conducted on any parcel or parcels or land which utilizes the resources of natural surroundings for the purpose of providing a creative, recreational and educational camping experience.

(A) The term "resident camp" means a youth camp accommodating 5 or more children under 18 years of age, living apart from their relatives, parents or legal guardians for a period of 5 days or more.

(B) The term "troop camp" means a youth camp which provides not less than 24 hours a day camping for organized groups of 5 or more children under 18 years of age within a parent council of a national voluntary youth serving organization.

(C) The term "day camp" means a youth camp operating for a portion of the day, but less than 24 hours a day, and conducted on a permanent campsite for at least 5 days during a two week period, for 5 or more children under 18 years of age.

(a) A permanent campsite means an outdoor campground containing within the premises thereof temporary or permanent structures and installed facilities which are continuously or periodically used for camping purposes for a portion of a day by a youth camp operator. (D) The term "travel camp" means-(no change from language in H.R. 1486/S 3639)

PROMULGATION OF YOUTH CAMP SAFETY STANDARDS

Sec. 5. The Secretary shall develop, and shall by rule promulgate, modify, or revoke youth camp safety standards. In developing such standards, the Secretary shall consult with State officials and with representatives of appropriate public and private organizations, and shall consider existing State regulations and standards and standards developed by private organizations which are applicable to youth camp safety and shall make such suitable distinctions in the standards as are necessary and appropriate to give recognition to the difference in conditions and operations between resident, troop, day and travel camping. The Secretary shall make the initial promulgation of standards required by this section within 1 year after the effective date of this Act. KATHLEEN B. Ross, Washington Representative.

MS. PINNEY. We have. Mr. SARASIN. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Mr. DANIELS. In concluding, may I also direct your attention to section 7 of the bill. No grant may exceed 80 percent of the cost for carrying out State plans. Now, I agree with your view that we would prefer States to adopt legislation, to carry out the laws of their own States. However, since 26 States have no legislation in this area at all, I feel that the Federal Government should establish the leadership and encourage the States to adopt this legislation.

You will also find in the proposed legislation that the Federal Government wants to establish minimum standards. Nonetheless,

the States would be obliged to institute plans which are at least equal to the Federal standards that may be promulgated. I believe that the States ought to control their own programs, but they should be effective programs. Hopefully, more of the States will adopt such legislation up to the present time by virtue of action that we have endeavored, this committee has endeavored, to take in the past. I want to point out to you that after the statute which was voted by Congress in 1971 legislation, that I personally sent a copy of the bill of the legislation pending to each of the Governors of the fifty States. As a result of that action, six States have taken affirmative action along this line. Hopefully we can get the other 44 along. With that, I think we have no problem.

I want to thank you ladies for coming here today. We will recess until 1:00 o'clock.

Thank you.

[Whereupon, at 12:05 p.m., the subcommittee was in recess, to reconvene at 1:00 p.m., the same day.]

AFTER RECESS

[The subcommittee reconvened at 1:05 p.m., Hon. Dominick V. Daniels (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.]

Mr. PEYSER. The committee will come to order. Mr. Daniels will be with us in a few moments. He has had an opportunity to review your statement. We would like to hear from you and as the chairman has said, if you would like to have your entire statement in the record, we will do so and you may summarize it or whatever you want to do.

Mr. TOFANY. It is a reasonably short statement and so I will proceed. Your courtesy is very much appreciated.

STATEMENT OF VINCENT L. TOFANY, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL, ACCOMPANIED BY HARRY N. ROSENFIELD, GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL; AND JOHN FLEMMING, MANAGER, PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL

Mr. TOFANY. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. the National Safety Council welcomes this opportunity to testify regarding the pending H.R. 1486, Youth Camp Safety Act. We are grateful to you. Mr. Chairman, for pressing this issue. Your perseverance and that of the Congress is such that the 1975 camping year may prove safer than it would have been otherwise.

As a matter of identification, the National Safety Council is a nongovernmental, privately supported, public service organization chartered by the Congress of the United States to further, encourage, and promote methods and procedures leading to increased. safety, protection, and health whenever exposure to accidents can and does result in death or injury to people.

I am accompanied today by Mr. Rosenfield. to my left, and Mr. John Flemming, the manager of our Public Relations Department in whose sphere of activity falls all camping activities.

The council has been concerned for the safety of young people while they enjoy the benefits of attending a youth camp. Our educational effort in this regard have spanned many years and are summarized in an appendix to this statement. I should like to submit copies for the committee's files.

This represents the third time in recent years in which the National Safety Council has reported to this select subcommittee on the subject of the safety of youngsters while attending organized camps. The council's views were expressed on July 21, 1971, in a presentation by Howard Pyle, then president of the council.

At that time, among other things, we expressed serious concern over the lack of comprehensive data on accidents and injuries that arise out of the operation of youth camps. Even earlier, on May 21, 1969, the council recommended the passage of H.R. 763, which called for a survey of the health and safety situation in youth camps. The council's position has not changed and we now reaffirm those positions. Since that time there has been considerable national attention directed to almost every area of accident prevention. Unfortunately little governmental progress can be reported for organized youth camps.

It seems somewhat incongruous and I think this morning Chairman Daniels very wisely pointed it out, that the employees of a private camp are currently protected by Federal legislation, but the youngsters attending the camp are not.

We believe these youngsters should have the benefits of comprehensive health and safety standards consistent with sound camping experiences and that such standards have the force and effect of law.

The youth camp safety survey which the council recommended and which the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare conducted pursuant to Public Law 92-318 has been carefully studied, and the following observations are offered: the limited accidental injury data obtained from the study are probably not typical of what is occurring in youth camps in general and appear to be based on a biased sample. Particularly disturbing is the fact that of the approximately 200 camps originally selected for this study, only 128 were actually surveyed. Quoting from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare report to Congress [page 6, paragraph C1, "The resulting sample was, in fact, a selection of volunteer participants." "One cannot assume that health problems existed in camps that volunteered for this study at the same rate with which they existed in camps choosing not to participate." This situation appears analogous to that in occupational safety and health wherein the record shows that members of the National Safety Council. that is, volunteer participants, had an injury frequency rate that was 70 percent lower than nonmembers and a severity rate that was 40 percent lower than nonmembers for manufacturers.

Consequently, we suspect that the statistical findings in this HEW study reflect the safety performance of the better managed camps and cannot be regarded as reflecting the situation in camps in general.

The HEW study reveals very little effort on the part of most States to take action to protect the lives of youngsters while attending camp.

We see no evidence to indicate that any changes are likely to occur that will assign to camping safety a higher priority.

We can only conclude that accident data are still inadequate for planning effective accident prevention programs, and no system appears to be developing at the national or State levels. A good accidental injury data system would provide a basis for effective standards which could contribute to improved safety performance. Safety standards have not been adopted to any great extent by the separate States in spite of some public attention. Inspection and enforcement of camping health and safety regulations varies greatly among States and communities, and there appears to be little prospect of general improvement.

We conclude, therefore, H.R. 1486, properly implemented, would establish this long-sought accident data system; it has the machinery to promulgate safety standards based on this accident data and places the enforcement of such standards on a par with other governmental responsibilities.

Thus, The National Safety Council supports the purpose and many of the provisions of this pending safety legislation for youth camps. In fact, I can say we support it in its entirety.

Furthermore, the Council believes this measure can be enhanced by considering the following recommendations:

Advisory Council-That the composition of the proposed advisory council on youth camp safety referred to in section 15 be more precisely defined so as to insure a consensus of interested parties. Moreover, the size of this advisory council, which is to consist of the Secretary of HEW and nine persons, hardly seems adequate for the complex demands that will be placed upon such a group. An advisory council consisting of representatives from appropriate Federal agencies, State government officials with camp supervisory responsibilities, youth serving organizations, camp operator organizations, safety, health, and education organizations and other interested parties, would be better constituted to discharge the responsbility incumbent on such a council. The National Safety Council recommneds that the size of the advisory council be raised to a level that would better represent the various youth camp interests.

Standards Development-We recognize that no object found in nature or produced by man is totally without some risk of harmful interaction for young campers. A basic National Safety Council precept is that the elimination of all risk of injury will never be fully achieved, even with the simplest of tasks. Nevertheless, we must continue to strive to reduce the risk level until it approaches zero. Since we can never achieve absolute freedom from risk under all conditions, we must therefore address ourselves to the degree of safety that can be achieved, recognizing the obvious constraints inherent in camping.

The Council espouses the principle that every practical effort should be made to determine and then remove or control the probability and the consequences of those undesired events arising out of hazards, malfunctions and failures, thus assuring optimum safety with the constraints of known technology and available resources. The Council recommends that, even in the absence of a current accidental injury reporting system, many of the existing safety

standards, voluntary in application but strongly supported by camping associations, would serve as a valid reference on which to prepare official standards.

The Council recommends that the standards promulgated under this safety legislation should be, insofar as possible, consensus standards. The consensus principle basically involves two essentials: Securing representation from those groups that would be affected by the standard; and predominant acceptance by such groups.

The Council recommends that all standards eventually promulgated by the Secretary of HEW should preempt State standards applicable to he same aspect of safety except where the State standards are more rigorous or where local conditions warrant a variation from a Federal standard.

To leave this decision of when to enact safety standards and how rigorous they should be completely in the hands of the individual States will result in a patch quilt of separate requirements. Those States that invoke high quality standards may only cause the marginal camp operators to move to other States with more permissive safety standards. The parents, who ultimately must make the decision regarding the camping experience, would still be confronted with a bewildering array of claims as to the safety merits of competing camps.

Consultative Services-The Council recommends that there be a provision for a camp operator to request from the Secretary, or from a State with an approved plan, consultative services for the purpose of interpreting applicable standards; determining compliance with the applicable standard on specific physical conditions or environment; and determining alternative methods of compliance.

Requests for consultative service or assistance should not result. in any sanctions when the inspection was made at the request of the camp operator. If, however, in the course of providing such consultative service, an existing condition is discovered which constitutes an imminent danger, then it should be abated immediately and some mechanism should be provided to enforce abatement of such danger.

Such consultative services. I think. would go a long way in eliminating apprehnsion and enhancing the voluntary compliance which is an absolute necessity to the achievement of the purpose of the youth camp safety legislation.

Penalties-We strongly concur with the "general duty" clause (section 4 of H.R. 1486) and regard this as an essential element in youth camp safety legislation.

The Council would also favor a provision for "first instance" sanctions, when warranted, subject to the right of consultative service. Such a provision will encourage compliance with a newly promulgated standard at a date sooner than might be the case if there were no "first instance" sanction. The Council is of the opinion that "first instance" sanctions for nonserious violations should be discretionary, not mandatory.

Education and Training-There will be a need for youth camp. operators to become familiar with the new safety standards and accident reporting systems.