File #: Res 1142-2000    Version: * Name: Glaucoma Awareness Month
Type: Resolution Status: Adopted
Committee: Committee on Health
On agenda: 1/19/2000
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution acknowledging the month of January to be National Glaucoma Awareness Month and calling on all New Yorkers to promote Glaucoma awareness.
Sponsors: Una Clarke, Martin Malave-Dilan, Pedro G. Espada, Kenneth K. Fisher, Kathryn E. Freed, Karen Koslowitz, Howard L. Lasher, Guillermo Linares, Michael C. Nelson, Lawrence A. Warden, Michael J. Abel, June M. Eisland, Wendell Foster, Julia Harrison, Sheldon S. Leffler, Helen M. Marshall, Stanley E. Michels, Jerome X. O'Donovan, Bill Perkins, Jose Rivera, Archie W. Spigner
Council Member Sponsors: 21
Res. No. 1142 Title Resolution acknowledging the month of January to be National Glaucoma Awareness Month and calling on all New Yorkers to promote Glaucoma awareness. Body By Council Members Clarke, Malave-Dilan, Espada, Fisher, Freed, Koslowitz, Lasher, Linares, Nelson, Warden and Abel; also Council Members Eisland, Foster, Harrison, Leffler, Marshall, Michels, O'Donovan, Perkins, Rivera and Spigner. Whereas, Glaucoma is a progressive disease of the eye that affects an estimated 4 million Americans; and Whereas, About half of these people don't even know that they have the disease; and Whereas, It is extremely difficult for a person with glaucoma to detect the disease in its early stages without a proper glaucoma exam; and Whereas, The only effective method of early detection and treatment of glaucoma, which is the second leading cause of preventable blindness, is to make sure people are informed about the disease and encourage people to have regular eye and glaucoma exams; and Whereas, African Americans and people of African descent are more likely to go blind from glaucoma than any other racial group; and Whereas, Routine eye exams are extremely important for everybody but it is especially important that groups at high risk for glaucoma - people who are over 65 years of age, African Americans, people with previous ocular injury, people with a family history of glaucoma and diabetic patients - get regular glaucoma exams; and Whereas, Once detected, there are many ways to treat glaucoma including eye drops, surgery and drugs; and Whereas, New technologies to treat glaucoma are being developed every day; and Whereas, The best defense in fighting glaucoma is detecting the disease early and therefore, more than anything else, it is education and awareness that will be most effective; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York acknowledges the month of January to be National Glaucoma Awareness Month and calls on all New Yorkers to promote Glaucoma awareness. MW:bg LS#2579Glaucoma D-Res.#3 1/11/00 |1013| - 2 -