TAMPA -- Governor Charlie Crist stopped by an East Tampa library this morning to sign an act allocating $1-million dollars to study why black infants die at higher rates than white infants.

The state’s Department of Health will administer the program and allocate the grant money to Healthy Start coalitions in counties with particularly high black infant morality rates. The grant recipients will examine medical and social causes of infant death and will help design future programs to improve infant survival rates, said Estrellita Berry, project director for central Hillsborough Healthy Start Project.

In Hillsborough, Berry said, black infants die 4.4 times as often as white infants. Three of her friends lost their infants young — one because of diabetes, one from high blood pressure, and one for reasons still unknown.

“We’re off the mark,” she said.

The bill, HB 1269, was sponsored in the House by freshman Rep. Betty Reed (D-59) and in the Senate by Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-18).

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/07/crist-signs-inf.html