Texas rule requiring burial or cremation of fetal tissue shames women, suit says

A women’s rights group has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block a new Texas rule that requires fetal remains to be cremated or buried.

Accusing the state of a politically-motivated ploy to make it harder for women to have abortions, the Center for Reproductive Rights launched the legal action on Monday, one week before the regulation is set to take effect on 19 December.

The lawsuit against the Texas department of state health services (DSHS), filed in federal court in Austin, alleges that the regulation has no medical benefits, will pose practical burdens by increasing the cost of healthcare services and is an attempt to stigmatise abortion and heap shame on women seeking the procedure.

Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider, is the lead plaintiff in the suit. It claims that the new regulation “burdens women seeking pregnancy-related medical care. It imposes a funeral ritual on women who have a miscarriage management procedure, ectopic pregnancy surgery, or an abortion.

“Further, it threatens women’s health and safety by providing no safe harbor for sending tissue to pathology or crime labs. It also forces healthcare providers to work with an extremely limited number of third-party vendors for burial or scattering ashes, threatening abortion clinics’ provision of care and their long-term ability to remain open, as well as cost increases for women seeking pregnancy-related medical care.”

Current Texas regulations on disposal by healthcare facilities do not generally distinguish between fetal remains and other kinds of human materials that would typically be disposed of in a sanitary landfill. The new rule changes that, creating a category for “fetal tissue” and ordering it to be buried or cremated regardless of how far along the pregnancy is. Miscarriages or abortions that happen at home are exempt and birth or death certificates are not required to be issued.

The plan, strongly promoted by Texas’ Republican governor Greg Abbott, was publicly announced last July, four days after the supreme court struck down key parts of an onerous 2013 abortion law that prompted a drastic drop in the number of clinics in Texas. The court found that the law, which mandated that clinics have standards akin to surgical centres, caused an undue burden on women seeking an abortion and did not offer sufficient medical benefits. Abbott, though, has vowed to continue efforts to restrict abortion.

“I believe it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life. This is why Texas will require clinics and hospitals to bury or cremate human and fetal remains,” Abbott wrote in July in a fundraising email to supporters reported by the Texas Tribune. He said the proposal would “help make Texas the strongest pro-life state in the nation”.

According to the DSHS, the rule will benefit public health and safety “by ensuring that the disposition methods specified in the rules continue to be limited to methods that prevent the spread of disease” and by “protecting the dignity of the unborn”. Texas’s Republican-dominated legislature is expected to formally enshrine the regulation in state law during the 2017 session, which starts in January.

Texas governor Greg Abbott has said the proposal would ‘help make Texas the strongest pro-life state in the nation’. Photograph: Mike Stone/Reuters

“These regulations are an insult to Texas women, the rule of law and the US supreme court, which declared less than six months ago that medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion access are unconstitutional,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “These insidious regulations are a new low in Texas’ long history of denying women the respect that they deserve to make their own decision about their lives and their healthcare.”

The question of how to handle fetal remains became a rallying point for anti-abortion activists after an organisation released a video in 2015 that falsely appeared to show employees at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston illegally selling fetal tissue.

Mike Pence, the Indiana governor and now vice-president-elect, signed a restrictive abortion law in March this year that included a fetal remains provision similar to Texas’s plans. It was stopped by a court in June shortly before it was scheduled to take effect.

Another law in Louisiana is on hold because of an ongoing legal challenge.

Texas rule requiring burial or cremation of fetal tissue shames women, suit says

Wen Hair Care baldness suit signals need for toxin testing in beauty products

Last week brought news that Wen Hair Care, a celebrity endorsed “sulfate-free” shampoo and conditioner line is preparing a $ 26.5m settlement after a class action lawsuit over thousands of complaints of hair loss and skin rashes.

While cases like Wen put people on high alert, it is difficult to steer clear of potentially toxic products. Every day the average person uses nine personal care products, according to a survey by the Environmental Working Group. With most personal product ingredient lists taking up an unpronounceable paragraph, it can be a daunting area for consumers to navigate. Especially when something like the Wen lawsuit provides a reminder that personal care products are barely regulated in the US.

There currently is no independent testing of ingredients in beauty products. However, if a particular cosmetic product is causing serious health issues, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will step in with a consumer warning, as was the case with Wen. The FDA issued a public warning last month, saying that the company failed to address safety concerns. Wen, however, has persisted in saying that its products are safe, despite the FDA’s objections and the company’s own decision to settle the class action suit.

In a statement, the FDA said that it could do little else to compel the company: “We do not have the legal authority to require a cosmetics firm to provide product safety information.”

The only FDA regulation of the cosmetic industry dates back to a few rules adopted in 1938 that have remained largely unchanged, leaving the cosmetic industry effectively self regulating. That self regulation allows cosmetic companies to voluntarily report adverse effects from their products to the FDA.

In Wen’s case, 127 instances of adverse effects were reported to the FDA, a fraction of the around 21,000 complaints made to the company.

While cosmetic ingredients have not changed dramatically in the past 50 years, various additives in personal care products have received scrutiny in recent years. When there is a lot of attention around a cosmetic ingredient, companies will sometimes look to replace it with an alternative to avoid controversy. That can create new issues, as replacement ingredients have often been studied less than what they’re designed to supplant.

In the case of Wen, its products were advertised specifically as not having sulfates or detergents, as there have been public objections to their safety.

The FDA doesn’t require full ingredients lists to be made public, so it is still unclear what chemicals might have prompted consumers’ hair loss, but it’s possible that one of the substitutes was the issue.

Another way the beauty industry has responded to a lot of the concerns around its ingredients is by marketing “natural” cosmetic and hair care lines. But because the term “natural” is not regulated, it doesn’t mean anything.

“Natural is a marketing trick to get people to pay more,” says Perry Romanowski, a cosmetic chemist and a co-founder of The Beauty Brains, a blog about the ingredients in cosmetics. “Cosmetics are not natural: there is nothing natural about them.”

New legislation might help address the regulatory gap. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senator Susan Collins have proposed legislation that would give the FDA the power to issue recalls and conduct their own safety tests of ingredients found in cosmetics.

A number of major cosmetic companies, such as Estée Lauder, have backed the bill, but it still faces opposition from the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors, the cosmetic trade group for small to mid-sized cosmetic companies.

While lobbyists fight it out in Washington, Nneka Leiba, deputy director of research at the Environmental Working Group, has a few words of advice for consumers. It’s best if you can use single-ingredient alternatives, says Leiba, but she allows that not everyone can use something like coconut oil for all their skincare needs. She says reducing the number of products used everyday or using products with fewer ingredients, like those without artificial fragrances, can be another strategy.

If a person is worried about the ingredients in their makeup, says Romanowski, not using products is another way to alleviate that worry. After all, he points out, there is “no health benefit in using cosmetics”.

Wen Hair Care baldness suit signals need for toxin testing in beauty products

Age-simulation suit displays what it truly is like to be previous

It is effortless to see how, as a result of their frailties, old men and women would be treated differently – not consulted on selections and spoken to in the peremptory tones that exhausted mothers may possibly use on their kids. (“You’re in that gentleman’s way, darling!”). The previous person’s enjoyment or comfort turns into significantly less of a issue than difficulties-avoidance for others: a café is picked not simply because of a wonderful view, but since it’s simple to get to and the doors are wider.

Nevertheless sporting my empathy outfit, I am escorted outdoors, in which kerbs – which have never played any important function in my prior life – now current a danger. As do stairs and ramps. I stumble and start to really feel anxious it’s not long just before I am asking my companions the exact angle of the subsequent incline.

The worst encounter of all, though, is the tremor-gloves interlude. This involves sitting down and attempting to undertake a series of duties (consuming a cup of water, guiding a sandwich towards my mouth, unwrapping a boiled sweet) while a minimal-voltage recent is transmitted to the fingers. It starts off as a tingling, becomes severe pins and needles, and ends up creating extreme jolts and trembles that mirror the signs of Parkinson’s Condition. To get it to end, I have to area my palms together in an imprecatory method, which I resort to after 15 seconds.

“Wearing this suit is part of the education,” says Sandra Walden, practice growth nurse, whom I only met 45 minutes ago, nevertheless whose hand I’m now clutching tightly to go downstairs. “Nurses try it out, as do medical doctors, physios, even our chairman and chief executive. Till you’ve spent time in that suit, you have no true concept of the troubles that older individuals face.”

Except that now I do. What’s far more, I come to feel ashamed of my tutting when I’ve been inconvenienced by a pottering pensioner. I’ve been given a sneak preview of the long term, and I promise to be not just older but wiser.

Age-simulation suit displays what it truly is like to be previous

The age simulation suit: This is what it feels like to be outdated - video

Josh Halliday tries out an age simulation suit, designed to support healthcare experts encounter and empathise with problems related with elderly folks. Sheelagh Mealing, director of the Institute of Vocational Learning at South Financial institution University, explains how the suit is utilized as a instrument for improving healthcare

The age simulation suit: This is what it feels like to be outdated - video

Wellness Q&A: do facial oils suit absolutely everyone?

Britain’s top well being and wellbeing professionals response your queries

24 February 2014

I thought using facial oils was a great way to help ageing skin and to remedy issues such as dryness naturally, but do they suit absolutely everyone? I’ve been using them twice day-to-day and am receiving blotchy red spots around my eyes. I was utilizing a neroli mix all above my face.

THE SKINCARE Professional Su-Guy Hsu

Facial oil is great for conditioning, especially very dry skin, and is beneficial in extreme climate alterations. Eyes display our expression and the consistent motion brings about lines to seem quicker in the thin-skinned eye location. But this region does not soak up oil effortlessly and it might leave fatty deposits or trigger irritations, which sounds like your predicament. Attempt applying a light eye cream infused with light dry oil, this kind of as rosehip, more than the lid and under the eye and crow’s-feet spot.

THE NATUROPATH Susan Curtis

No product suits definitely absolutely everyone. Some people locate a facial oil transforms their skin and other people might uncover a distinct blend unsuitable or may not be in a position to use oil at all. In your case, I would first attempt a plain vegetable oil – I would suggest pure argan oil, which is light and well tolerated by all skin kinds as properly as currently being nourishing and useful for dry skin. If that doesn’t seem to be proper, attempt an anti-ageing serum that is not oil-based mostly and may suit your skin much better.

THE FACIALIST Linda Meredith

It is essential to select an oil of great good quality that has a base of essential oils as some may have a damaging result on the skin. If the fragrance is too powerful it may possibly also be too robust to apply immediately on to the face. If any reaction takes place, end utilizing the oil quickly. Try a serum that can be utilized in excess of the total encounter – even the eyes. Crucial oils this kind of as lavender, cypress, rosemary, geranium and thyme will support remove dryness, fine lines and wrinkles.

Always seek the advice of a healthcare practitioner if your symptoms persist. Send your well being queries, for publication only, to stellahealth@telegraph.co.uk

Wellness Q&A: do facial oils suit absolutely everyone?

False Label Class Action Law Suit Towards Trader Joe’s To Settle For three.4 Million

by Prolonged Island Attorney Paul A. Lauto, Esq./www.liattorney.com

“Say it ain’t so Joe,” but alas even Trader Joe’s was faced with a class action law suit claiming false and misleading use of “All Natural” and “100% Natural” labels on foods merchandise.  The suit claimed that Trader Joe’s charged a premium on meals products falsely labeled “All Natural” and “100% Organic,” as they contained synthetic and artificial elements such as xanthan gum.

A Federal Court Judge has preliminarily accepted a settlement for approximately $ 3.four million bucks, with last approval scheduled for a July hearing.  The income set aside is in element to be utilized to reimburse customers with and without receipts for the offending foods items, including a range of cookies, juice, rolls, cheese and far more.

This situation represents the mere tip of the “All Natural” litigation ice berg, which has been allowed to form courtesy of the FDA and their refusal to define the word “Natural.”  The bottom line is that the food sector is big company and meals shops are in that business to make income.  The FDA is suppose to safeguard buyers towards the malevolence of large business, but as several think, that is like asking the fox to watch the hen property.

We need to have a governmental meals company that in fact does their purported occupation of guarding American buyers.  The ideal way to effectuate alter is by way of a enormous grass roots movement by the people.  If people in every single state complain to their Senators, Congressmen and Governors about the true need to have to remove the FDA and create a new governmental food agency totally free of outdoors influence, all issues are possible.  When politicians are convinced that the men and women demand a change and that their political careers depend on it, we will do well in acquiring the wolves to flip on themselves.

If you think it is time to do away with the FDA and replace it with a meals only governmental agency that genuinely protects the American consumer, then get a first proactive phase by signing a petition to do so at www.alter.org/petitions/kathleen-sebelius-u-s-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-do-away-with-the-fda-and-replace-it-with-a-new-foods-only-governmental-agency-that-actually-protects-buyers?recruiter=82663938&amputm_source=share_petition&amputm_medium=email&amputm
_campaigh=petition_invitation.  With each other we can make a much better tomorrow.

Long Island Attorney
Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
www.liattorney.com

False Label Class Action Law Suit Towards Trader Joe’s To Settle For three.4 Million

M&S"s pastel shades will not suit the NHS | Yvonne Roberts

Sir Stuart Rose, who is to advise the NHS on management. Photograph: Rex

Sir Stuart Rose is described as “a single of the country’s most inspirational leaders” by Jeremy Hunt, the overall health secretary. So he has appointed the former head of M&ampS – in charge when the worth of shares dropped by thirty%, former head of Argos and existing chair of Ocado – to overhaul the leadership of underperforming hospitals and make sure managers are “much more visible and in touch with frontline sufferers, providers and employees”. Leave aside the management-communicate query of in which else patients may be other than on the “frontline” – below the bed? Hiding behind the junk snack dispenser? – what could Rose possibly import from M&ampS to Britain’s best-loved, albeit completely reorganised, semi-privatised, consistently criticised and battered institution?

You may possibly maybe start with the feeling that many of us encounter when we are once more overtaken by that irrational and profoundly optimistic belief that maybe M&ampS has acquired far better.

So we give it one a lot more opportunity and stage back into its often over-warm embrace only to discover that the heart immediately grows hefty, the eyesight is blurred by visions of hundreds of identical pastel jumpers and daily life flashes ahead of you as you wade through Per Una’s most current work to dress the present day woman as a colour-blind nonagenarian. And no, the blouse in the full-web page magazine advert looks practically nothing like the actual point.

Depression hovers or at least a profound sense of futility. This is invariably compounded by what is an increasingly desperate hard work to locate a “customer adviser” who is not engaged in an intensely personalized conversation with another customer adviser and who therefore does not want to be bothered with an inquiry about the whereabouts of the black V-neck jumpers right after nevertheless another radical re-organisation of the store floor? (Solution, at the rear of the shop, where all M&ampS’s diminishing quantity of “bestsellers” are invariably stored in a huge consumer adviser-totally free zone.)

The NHS, like M&ampS, is far from perfect. Scandals arise, folks rightly complain, the Francis report last yr identified a problem with leadership and criticised the “culture of concern”. Nonetheless strolling into numerous hospitals as I, like other individuals, have carried out with elderly and anxious relatives, the volunteers are pleasant, the workers warm and supportive. It is a quite diverse transaction to that at the heart of so many retail operations, nonetheless after revered as in the case of M&ampS. So, what can Rose offer?

He could perform to his past strengths. Crab gratin and effortlessly carved duck might not go amiss on the hospital menu if the management staff in charge of NHS catering can be coaxed to relinquish the grey knotted mince and scary primrose scrambled eggs of which it is so incredibly fond (to the disappointment of numerous a celebrity chef employed and de-hired as the healthier meals tsar). But far more than that? Production lines and provide chains, standardisation to accomplish efficiencies of scale, belong on the shop floor, not in the NHS, the place we know the fragile meaning of care is so vulnerable to the tyranny of targets, processes, management overload and inflexibility.

Arguably, M&ampS’s extended-term malaise in clothing is easily diagnosed. It no longer is aware of whom it is serving, how and why. It has misplaced its vocation. The good news is, in spite of all its travails, the NHS is different.

M&S"s pastel shades will not suit the NHS | Yvonne Roberts