BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed a law allowing emergency dispatchers to tell others how to administer CPR over the phone. New Orleans Democratic Sen.

Troy Carter's bill will require 911 operators and other emergency medical dispatchers to receive training to deliver CPR instructions over the phone to callers when necessary. The Advocate reports Edwards signed the measure into law Thursday, a day before CPR week began.

It takes effect Aug. 1.

The American Heart Association says more than 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the United States each year, and only about 10 percent of people survive. Urging passage in committee, Carter said telephone CPR could help avoid a delay of a few minutes that could "mean the difference between life and death."