Free Press : Help keep advertisers off our kids

Free Press : Help keep advertisers off our kids
Under current law, it is more difficult to regulate advertising to children than to adults! The HeLP America Act (S. 2558) is an important step towards fixing this problem. By restoring the FTC’s authority to control children’s advertising, we will have the regulatory structure needed to fight back against unchecked advertisers.

Take a moment to support this crucial legislation.

PETITION BACKGROUND:

In 1978, based on research showing that marketing to children is inherently unfair because they do not understand its persuasive intent, the FTC proposed a ban on advertising to children under eight. Worried about losing access to a lucrative market, the affected industries lobbied Congress and convinced them in 1980 to rescind the FTC’s power to regulate advertising to children.

The HeLP America (Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention) Act, S 2558, would restore government regulation of child-directed advertising after nearly 25 years of minimal oversight.

Some facts about marketing to children:

* In 2002 alone, corporations spent at least than $15 billion on marketing to children.
* Marketing is a factor in the childhood obesity epidemic. Since 1980, the number of overweight kids in the U.S. between 6 and 11 years of age doubled, while the number tripled for those 12 to 17 years old
* Marketing encourages eating disorders, precocious sexuality, youth violence and family stress.
* In their effort to establish cradle-to-grave brand loyalty, marketers even target babies.
* 85% of Americans want to make children’s programming commercial free.

For more information on advertising, commercialism, and children, check out the following areas of the Free Press website:
Children's Programming Activist Issue
Advertising Regulation Activist Issue
Hypercommercialism Ongoing Project

To join the growing movement to protect children from harmful marketing, please visit www.commercialexploitation.org.

Midwifery legislation pending in 10 states

VBFree Midwifery-related Action Alerts!

* Alabama - Developing CPM legislation
* Ohio - CPM licensure
* Illinois - CPM licensure
* Massachusets - CPM/CNM/CM licensure by a single board
* Missouri - DEM decriminalization / rights of pregnant women
* Nebraska - CPM licensure, CNM autonomy (OOH)
* Utah - CPM licensure
* Virginia - CPM licensure, CNM pilot projects, infection reporting, medical malpractice
* Wisconsin - Developing CPM legislation
* Wyoming - CPM decriminalization / registration

CLICK HERE for details.

OPPOSE HB 2205 Malpractice settlements; disclosure of certain [info] via Physician Information Project.

LIS > Bill Tracking > HB2205 > 2005 session: HB 2205 Malpractice settlements; Disclosure of certain malpractice settlements via the Physician Information Project.
Patron: Bradley Marrs
- Modifies the reporting and disclosure requirements concerning malpractice settlements relating to physicians of medicine, osteopathy, and podiatry. The bill prohibits the disclosure online via the Physician Information Project of malpractice settlements that are required to be reported by insurance companies, and limits reports to the Board of Medicine from individual physicians to malpractice judgments. The settlements will still be reported to the Board of Medicine by the malpractice carriers.

Please call the General Assembly's Constituent Viewpoint lines to OPPOSE THIS BILL. The operators will immediately forward your opinions to both your delegate and your senator.

CALL: 1-800-889-0229 (outside Richmond) or 698-1990 (Richmond area) 9am-5pm M-F

related article:
Bad outcome to impart lessons
Family that alleged negligence in lawsuit sees need for reform
BY BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Thursday, January 20, 2005

"Among the more than two dozen bills affecting medical-malpractice laws and physician discipline in this year's legislative session is one filed by Del. Bradley P. Marrs, R-Chesterfield. It would end the practice of filing notice of medical-malpractice settlements on the Board of Medicine's public Web site.

Marrs, a lawyer, said the bill is "a product of my own thinking" and has not been entered because of complaints from a constituent or the medical profession. Nor did the Medical Society of Virginia request the bill, said a spokesman.

Marrs said he believes doctors' fears about public notices of settlements and the misimpression people can get about a doctor from seeing the vague notices are forcing claims of malpractice to go to trial.

Medical board records show that removing public notice of a settlement from the Web site would keep from public scrutiny almost 90 percent of medical-malpractice cases that are resolved with a paid claim in Virginia."

HB 1570 Nosocomial infections; procedures for hospitals to release information.

This bill was approved by the full House and has been referred to Senate Committee on Education and Health

See current status

Please call the General Assembly's Constituent Viewpoint lines to SUPPORT THIS BILL. The operators will immediately forward your opinions to both your delegate and your senator.

CALL: 1-800-889-0229 (outside Richmond) or 698-1990 (Richmond area) 9am-5pm M-F

Click here for more VBFree Action Alerts!

Support Informed Consent Amendment for Off-Label Use of Approved Medications

CLICK HERE > http://www.townhall.state.va.us/Stage/ViewStage.cfm?Stage=2830
TO COMMENT IN SUPPORT OF AN AMENDMENT TO PROPOSED BOARD OF MEDICINE REGULATIONS GOVERNING ETHICAL STANDARDS OF PRACTICE in VIRGINIA


Currently proposed regulations would require practitioners to obtain informed consent before performing surgical or invasive procedures, however, they would not apply to prescribing or administering medications, not even for "off label" uses, such as administering the ulcer drug Cytotec to induce childbirth in disregard of severe FDA approved label warnings, prescribing powerful adult psychotropic medications to control the behavior of young children even in the absence of studies of the effects that they may have on less than fully developed brains, and other less than scientifically supported applications for drugs that have received general FDA approval, albeit for entirely different purposes.

I've asked the BoM to extend the regulatory process in order to consider an amendment to proposed 18VAC85-20-24
that would somehow effectively state the following:
"5. Medications prescribed or administered for purposes other than those specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shall be considered experimental, and informed consent, as defined in § 32.1-162.16 of the Code of Virginia, shall be obtained from the patient. Pursuant to this provision, informed consent shall also include the disclosure of all notices of warnings, contraindications or adverse reactions that appear in the FDA approved package inserts related to the use of such medications, and such informed consent should be obtained prior to reasonably foreseeable circumstances during which the practitioner may intend to prescribe or administer such medications."

It only takes a few minutes to register and post your comments to the Virginia Legislative Town Hall's public comment forum. The Board of Medicine will host a Public hearing in Richmond on Friday, 1/21 to otherwise conclude the approval of the previously proposed regluations.

Click here for more details: http://www.townhall.state.va.us/Stage/ViewStage.cfm?Stage=2830

Please ACT NOW! . . . and FORWARD THIS APPEAL to any related lists and blogs.

Thank you,