Survey shows 75 percent of Bullitt County residents favor smoking ban; measure to be considered tomorrow

A survey found 75 percent of 400 Bullitt County residents would support a smoking ban in businesses. The numbers were released a day before the Bullitt County Board of Health is set to consider the ban, The Courier-Journal's Emily Hagedorn reports.

"There were a lot of people who said Bullitt County wasn't ready (for a smoking ban)," said Health Department Director Swannie Jett. "I think we've gotten to the root of who wants change in Bullitt County."

The survey showed people who most supported the measure are between the ages 18 and 34 and over 65 and have college degrees.

Critics who oppose a ban weren't impressed. "No survey that's paid for by an interest group is worth anything," said Harlen Compson, spokesman for Bullitt County Choice.

A statewide survey released in January by activists in favor of a statewide smoking ban showed 59 percent of Kentucky voters favor a ban in public places. (Read more)

Kentucky companies adjust to new federal rules requiring accommodations for breast-feeding mothers

Rules in the federal health-care refom law are resulting in Kentucky companies making room and time for mothers breast-feeding their children, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Mary Meehan reports.

Louisville Metro Government and four Louisville hospitals have announced programs that encourage breast feeding. Thirteen government work sites in Louisville will add lactation stations funded by a $7.9 million federal grant. The University of Kentucky started providing a program for breast-feeding mothers in 2009.

"It's not easy being a working mom when you are trying to breast-feed," said mother Lauren Goodpaster, right (H-L photo by Mark Cornelison). "Just having the support, having people say that's a great thing you are doing, that was kind of a boost to keep me going on days when it is such a pain."

The rules, which took effect when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed March 23, 2010, require employers to provide reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom place for nursing mothers to express breast milk during the work day. For more information about the regulations, click here. The U.S. Department of Labor has not yet released specific accommodation requirements or penalties if companies don't comply.

As of now, accommodations can be anything from providing a clean room with a locked door to allowing a fast food worker time to pump breast milk while in her car, Meehan reports.

Studies show breast-fed children are sick less often than those given formula, resulting in mothers missing less work time to care for their kids. In Kentucky, just 59 percent of new mothers breast-feed, compared to 75 percent nationwide. (Read more)

As meds-for-meth bill languishes, some seek compromise, but bill's sponsor says proposals would render it ineffective

By Al Cross and Tara Kaprowy
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

As the bill to require prescriptions for three widely used decongestants remains short of votes to pass the Senate, there is talk of a compromise measure to thwart the use of the medicines for making methamphetamine. But the bill's sponsor says he is not open to the compromises he's heard.

"We want to go with something that works," said Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London. "What has worked is what they've done in Oregon and Mississippi. What they have done is make a controlled substance out of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine," and greatly reduced the number of meth labs.

Lobbyists for drug manufacturers are circulating alternative proposals, such as applying the prescription rule only to the estimated 5,500 people convicted of a drug-related crime. Another industry proposal would cut the annual non-prescription purchase limit by more than half, from 108 grams per year to 50.

Jensen dismissed those proposals, saying they would do nothing to curtail "smurfing," meth makers' use of people who are paid to buy ingredients. "Some of them are homeless, some of them are college kids, some of them come from poor backgrounds," Jensen said of the buyers. "They've got fake IDs, they've got GPS systems showing all the pharmacies in the area, and they'll hit them very quickly." He added, "Even trying to limit (per-month consumption) has created a whole other problem. We have a whole lot of people who are getting involved in criminal activity who probably don't even know it."

The current monitoring system keeps the decongestants behind the counter and requires buyers to register. Under federal law, individuals may not buy more than 9 grams of pseudoephedrine in a 30-day period.

Last week on the Jack Pattie Show on Lexington's WVLK-AM, Louisville drug officer Stanley Salyards said he would accept a bill that would require prescriptions only for pills containing the three decongestants, since making meth from gelcaps and liquid preparations is very difficult. Two other police officers on the program indicated agreement.

Jensen rejected that idea today, saying his Senate Bill 45 would apply to only 15 products, and "All the other cold and flu medicines are still out there."

A Senate committee approved the bill on a 6-4 bipartsan vote last week, but the full Senate has passed over it for more than a week, and Jensen acknowledged in today's interview that it lacks the votes to pass.

He said manufacturers of the 15 cold remedies "have spent a tremendous amount of money opposing it and getting a lot of misinformation out there ... We, unfortunately, don't have the funds to get out and make full-page ads and radio statements and TV commercials that say 'That's just not true.'" For example, the ads say the registration and tracking system is effective, but the law-enforcement officers on the radio show last week said it is not.

Opponents of the bill say having to get prescriptions would increase costs for cold and allergy sufferers, and meth makers would simply cross state lines to get their supplies. The opponents are backed not only by heavy spending, but by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has suggested "banning all online retail sales, distribution and shipment of products containing ephedrine and/or pseudoephedrine from non-Kentucky licensed pharmacies to individuals in Kentucky."

Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, filed a bill last week to make the pill forms of the three substances “legend” drugs, those that are "available through the determination of a pharmacist or by prescription," reports The Kentucky Standard of Bardstown. "It would not be classified as a controlled substance." The bill would also prohibit purchases of any of the three medicines by anyone under 18 without a prescription.

“While many of us are sympathetic to those who have been adversely affected by the meth trade in Kentucky, I don’t believe making pseudoephedrine only available via a doctor’s prescription will curtail the meth problem in our commonwealth,” Floyd said in a press release. “By placing more responsibility on pharmacists who already have a monitoring system for pseudoephedrine sales, we can gain better control on those who are purchasing the product to make meth while not punishing those who need pseudoephedrine for legitimate health purposes.”

Floyd's House Bill 376, which he said he wrote after consulting with Bardstown pharmacists, would allow pharmacists to dispense the drugs to "a person evidencing physical symptoms treatable by those products," according to the bill summary, and "would require pharmacists to ask a series of questions to those trying to purchase a pseudoephedrine product," the Standard reports. It would also require thrm to put the information into the state's electronic tracking system for prescriptions.

"Local pharmacist Leon Claywell already uses a screening system to determine why a customer is buying medicine containing pseudoephedrine, Floyd said. If he thinks it is not for a legitimate purpose, he refuses to sell it," the Standard reports.

Idaho study: Drug testing for state-aid recipients inefficient

As discussion continues among Kentucky lawmakers over whether public-assistance recipients should undergo mandatory drug testing, an Idaho study has concluded such an undertaking is not cost-effective.

"The costs of legal action alone during the first year could exceed the costs of the drug testing and treatment program," says the study, as reported by The Associated Press. "To fund the costs of the program, (Idaho) would need to either appropriate additional funding for a drug-testing program, or divert funds from current programs for the screening, testing and treatment activities."

The study was conducted by Idaho's Department of Health and Welfare. It found that testing for federal welfare programs like Medicaid and food stamps is forbidden. For child-care assistance and temporary cash assistance for families, programs that cover about 10,500 Idahoans, the study showed the "costs of testing and related treatment would wipe out prospective savings achieved by removing offenders."

On Jan. 7, state Rep. Lonnie Napier, R-Lancaster, filed House Bill 208, which would requie random drug and urine testing for any Kentucky resident over 17 who gets Medicaid, food stamps or welfare benefits. Those failing the test would lose their benefits until they passed drug testing at a later date. The cost of the proposal was unknown, though Napier, right, said there are more than 600,000 Kentucky adults on welfare, and a drug test costs about $30. Those numbers result in a $18 million price tag, plus the costs of expanding drug treatment programs.

The House's Health and Welfare Committee has had the bill since Feb. 1 and does not appear likely to approve it.

Missouri, Virginia and Nebraska legislators are considering similar proposals. New Mexico lawmakers are debating whether to test for drugs as a condition to receive unemployment benefits. Minnesota and Wisconsin test convicted felons who receive some form of public assistance. Arizona "requires about 12,500 people in one federal program to complete a drug-screening questionnaire, with some then undergoing drug screens," AP reports.

The proposals have not been met without controversy. In 1999, Michigan's effort to drug test members of needy families who received temporary federal assistance lasted just five weeks before it was ruled unconstitutional, AP reports. (Read more)

Red wine, dark chocolate make for heart-healthy Valentine's

Those seeking to stay heart healthy even on the most romantic day of the year won't have to look much farther than the wine rack, scientific research source Newswise reports. Experts from the Loyola University Health System have found red wines like Pinots and merlots all contain a healthy amount of catechins, which help improve "good" HDL cholesterol.

Dark chocolate with a 70 percent-plus cocoa content is likewise heart friendly, thanks to its resveratrol, which helps lower blood sugar. "You are not even choosing between the lesser of two evils, red wine and dark chocolate have positive components that are actually good for your heart," said Susan Ofria, clinical nutrition manager at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital.

In honor of National Heart-Healthy Month, which is being celebrated this month, Ofria also recommends eating: salmon or tuna; flax seeds; oatmeal; black or kidney beans; walnuts and almonds; and blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and strawberries. (Read more)

Legislators expected to ban products containing addictive, powerful ingredient marketed as 'bath salts'

Kentucky is one of an increasing number of states proposing an emergency ban on products marketed as "bath salts," which can cause paranoia, hallucinations and even violent behavior.

The product, which is sold legally in stores and online under names like Cloud Nine, Red Dove, Blue Silk, Zoom and Ivory Wave, contains the ingredient methylenedioxypyrovalerone, commonly known as MDPV. The drug, which is also in products labeled as plant food, has been compared to cocaine and methamphetamine because of its addictive nature, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave reports.

State Sen. Walter Blevins, D-Morehead, left, sponsored Senate Bill 129, and state Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, right, sponsored House Bill 121, both of which ban methylenedioxypyrovalerone. Their bills simply refer to the drug with the street name "dove," and, in an emergency capacity, ban possession, trafficking or manufacture of MDPV and two related chemicals. The emergency ban is expected to pass.

Musgrave reported in December more than 100 cases of MDPV overdose were reported to poison centers in the last quarter of 2010, more than 75 percent of which were in Louisiana and Kentucky. The Louisiana Poison Center has been studying the abuse of the drug, which is most commonly snorted, but can be injected, smoked and eaten. Nationwide, the center has received 360 calls about the drug this year, Director Mark Ryan said. Earlier this month, White House drug czar Gil Kerilikowske issued a warning against abusing the product. Emergency bans have been issued in Louisiana, North Dakota and Florida, and legislative bans are also pending in Hawaii and Mississippi. (Read more)

Two bills aim to establish registry for abusers of adults

Identical bills have been filed in the House and Senate to establish a state registry of people who have abused or neglected adults.

Senate Bill 38, sponsored by Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, left, and House Bill 101, filed by Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, D-Lexington, right, have advance in their respective committees.

The Courier-Journal's Deborah Yetter, who wrote a series of stories that examined elder abuse in December, reports that advocates including the Council on Developmental Disabilities are working to advance the bill. Council officials feel "a registry would help protect disabled or elderly adults by giving potential employers a place to check the backgrounds of people they hire to provide personal care at home such as housekeeping or bathing or grooming," Yetter reports.

Some state officials have expressed concerns about the cost of such a registry. (Read more)