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Obama signs food-allergies bill for schools

The deaths of two girls in Illinois and Virginia from severe food allergies have helped spur efforts to get schools to stockpile emergency medications that can save lives.

Danielle Davis,a Capital High school student with severe nut allergies, displays an EpiPen and wears a protective mask during an interview in Charleston, W.Va., in this April 2008 file photo. (AP File Photo/Bob Bird)
Danielle Davis,a Capital High school student with severe nut allergies, displays an EpiPen and wears a protective mask during an interview in Charleston, W.Va., in this April 2008 file photo. (AP File Photo/Bob Bird)Read more
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The deaths of two girls in Illinois and Virginia from severe food allergies have helped spur efforts to get schools to stockpile emergency medications that can save lives.

That effort has now reached President Obama's desk. He signed a bipartisan bill Wednesday that offers a financial incentive to states if schools stockpile epinephrine, considered the first-line treatment for people with severe allergies. The medication is administered by injection, through preloaded EpiPens or similar devices.

Already, Pittsburgh-based Mylan Inc., which markets and distributes EpiPens, says it has distributed free EpiPens to more than 30,000 schools. It has a program called EpiPen4Schools that donates four EpiPens to schools that request them. - AP

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