Health

Over the past decade, St. Baldrick’s Day has become a major fundraising event for pediatric cancer research. It all began in 1999 when a group of insurance executives in Manhattan shaved their heads in solidarity with young cancer patients.

The majority of participants in the event are males, but a few women join them. And in Sitka last Friday, a teenage girl decided to take the plunge, raising nearly $3,000 in the process.

“I’m Celia Lubin. I’m 15 years old. And I go to Sitka High School.”

Lubin looks like a lot of teenagers. “My hair is purply, browny, blondy and its braids, and yeah.”

She does a bunch of activities, like swimming, soccer, drama & debate, concert band, and has her own radio show. But she’s doing something that very few teenage girls would do.

“I am shaving my head for St. Baldrick’s,” she said. “People who do chemo and lose their hair, it can be kind of isolating, I think, so showing them support, not only with money and, ‘Hey I’m raising awareness for this cause,” but, ‘I’m going to stand there with you.’”

At the St. Baldrick’s event at the Sitka Elks Lodge, men and boys are sitting in barber chairs on stage, while local hair stylists shave their heads. A little boy is walking around collecting pledges and stuffing them into an envelope. A crowd of about 100 people are sitting at the tables, eating dinner. Eight people are officially signed up to have their heads shaved, but many others hop onto to stage spontaneously to get their hair buzzed.

Lubin’s mom, Lisa Busch, says she was skeptical about her daughter’s decision at first.

“I thought, ‘Really? Can we pay you to not shave your head?’” she said.

But now?

“I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’m feeling really excited for Celia. Just like proud of her for doing this. Wondering what she’s going to look like bald,” she laughs.

Lubin says she was contemplating shaving her head before, but this gave her a reason to take the plunge that was hard for her parents to argue with.

“They didn’t really have a lot of say,” she said. “If they did object, I was just like, ‘hey, I’m not doing drugs. I’m raising money for cancer.’”

At the Elk’s Lodge, the announcer introduces Lubin to the crowd: “Who at 15 years old, would have shaved their head? This is a very brave young lady…”

“I’m a little bit nervous but I’m really excited,” Lubin said.

The hair stylist who’s going to cut Lubin’s hair helps the teenager get comfortable.

“What’s your name?”

“Celia.”

“I’m Casey. I shaved my head last year. It’s awesome. You’re gonna love it. Ready?”

Buzzzz…

“Alright, here it goes.”

BUZZZZZZZ…

Because she recently dyed her hair with streaks of purple, Lubin’s scalp has some colorful spots on it.

“Yeah,” she said. “I figured that would happen.”

After Lubin has her head totally shaved, she visits with her family.

“It looks great,” they said. “It looks so good. I’m proud of her. She has a nice-shaped head. I’m a proud papa.”

“It feels so good,” said Lubin. “I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

Lubin raised nearly $3,000 in pledges for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. By the end of the night, 18 people in Sitka had their heads shaved, and made more than $14,000.

Since 2004, the national organization has contributed more than $100 million to fight pediatric cancers.

Lubin does not see her participation as just a stunt.

“I know that I had a cancer-free childhood and it was really great,” she said. “I just think it would be really scary for kids my age and younger to have to go through something like a life-threatening illness like cancer, and I want to be able to help a little bit.”

And she says she’s not worried about her lost locks.

“I mean, it will grow back,” she said. “It is hair. It’s just hair.”

When Jim King was appointed to the City and Borough of Juneau’s first Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee in 1968, the Capital City didn’t even have a Parks and Rec department.

Today, the department is responsible for managing more than 50 parks and trails, two swimming pools, an ice arena, a skate park, and a rifle range. Not to mention the Jensen-Olson Arboretum, the Zach Gordon Youth Center, Centennial Hall, two parking garages, and the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.

King stepped down from the PRAC last month after 45 years. The Juneau Assembly on Monday honored his contributions to recreation in the Capital City and statewide. The proclamation took Mayor Merrill Sanford three minutes to read, and included nine whereas sections.

CBJ Parks and Rec Director Brent Fischer joked it easily could have been longer.

“We could have added more whereases on there until the sun came up tomorrow,” Fischer said. “But I want the Assembly and the public to know just, because of you, what a better place this community is.”

In 1970, King led the PRAC’s effort to compile a comprehensive list of parks and trails in Juneau. He also helped establish the Juneau State Parks Advisory Board, and led the charge to create the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge.

“I’ve always thought it was a privilege to live in Juneau and to be involved in the community as a volunteer with the Parks and Rec department,” King said. “It’s been wonderful.”

King worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years as an enforcement agent, refuge manager and wildlife biologist. His final meeting as a member of the PRAC was in March.

The 85 year old will continue to live in Juneau with his wife, Mary Lou.

A measure that would put the state in charge of school districts’ health plans is speeding through the legislature.

Right now, school districts negotiate their own health insurance plans. This bill would change that by allowing a state commissioner to select a plan for all districts, essentially putting all educators into one big insurance pool. The idea is that the larger the pool, the lower the rates.

A number of school districts have offered their initial support for the bill. On Thursday, the Mat-Su School District testified that such a change could save them over $5 million. Bruce Johnson, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, also called in to say he likes the proposal.

“If there’s a means to create efficiencies, we stand behind the effort. SB90 provides a vehicle creating a large pool of employees from all school districts, with the state administering the program on behalf of school districts.”

But opinion on the bill isn’t universally positive. The Unalaska City School District is opposed to the idea of a mandate, and a group representing 350 employees from the Anchorage School District have said that the change could actually raise rates for those people.

There are also concerns that the bill has been moving too quickly, and that the legislature has not studied the full costs to school districts or the state. Companion bills were introduced in the House and Senate two weeks ago. While they had been assigned to the education committees in both chambers for review, those referrals were removed.

The pacing of the bill came up during a finance committee meeting when Sen. Mike Dunleavy, a Wasilla Republican who sponsored the bill, asked National Education Association representative Rhonda Kitter for her group’s take on the bill.

DUNLEAVY: Is your group against the bill? Is your group against what you perceive the speed at which the bill is progressing? Could you clarify that for me?

KITTER: Our group is against the bill because of the speed at which it is progressing. We do not feel there has been sufficient notification to the employees or sufficient research into the impact.

The legislation is now in its final committee of review in both chambers. With the legislature scheduled to gavel out on Sunday, the bill could be held over until next year’s session.

Right now, the state of Alaska is obligated to provide Medicaid funding for all “medically necessary” abortions. Yesterday the Senate passed a bill that would narrow that definition.

It’s the first time the Senate has passed an abortion bill since 2006. The legislation would only allow for Medicaid payments if a woman is at serious risk of physical harm if she goes through with her pregnancy or if the woman is a victim of rape or incest. It specifically excludes mental health conditions. Supporters of the legislation have characterized that as a loophole through which women can get Medicaid coverage for elective procedures.

Anti-abortion groups have gotten behind the bill, saying it would reduce the number of abortions in the state because low-income women are less likely to go through with the procedure if they can’t secure payment. Sen. John Coghill, a North Pole Republican, sponsored the bill, and he says that his intent was narrower than that.
 

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Senate passes controversial abortion bill

A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has ruled that the morning-after pill for emergency contraception must be made available over the counter to girls 16 and under.

The ruling could end a more than decade-long battle over how easy or difficult it should be for teenage girls to obtain emergency contraception. The ruling would also make it easier for older women to obtain the drug because it wouldn’t have to be kept behind drugstore counters anymore.

The judge’s order effectively overturns a controversial 2011 decision by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruling the Food and Drug Administration. After years of study and internal debate, the FDA had decided that Plan B One Step should be allowed for sale without a prescription — and without age restrictions.

In the ruling dated April 4, Senior Judge Edward R. Korman of the Eastern District of New York held that Sebelius’s decision on Plan B was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”

On page 47 of the 59-page decision, Korman skewers Sebelius’s decision, calling it “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified, and contrary to agency precedent ….”

He also slammed the FDA’s rejection of a so-called Citizen’s Petition dating to 2005 that argued for the agency to approve unfettered over-the-counter sale of Plan B. That rejection, he said, was a direct consequence of Sebelius’s ruling.

In the decision, Korman sends the Plan B case back to FDA with orders to make the morning-after pill “available without a prescription and without point-of-sale or age restrictions within 30 days.” If the agency decides the instructions for the drugs need tweaks, that’s OK.

When Sebelius essentially vetoed the FDA’s decision in late 2011, women’s health groups erupted in protest. “As doctors and researchers have repeatedly stated, ample research shows Plan B to be safe for women of all ages and appropriate for over-the-counter access. It is deeply disappointing that this administration would repeat the mistakes of the previous one,” said Susan Wood, an associate professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health. Wood was an assistant commissioner for women’s health at the FDA but quit in 2005 over its continued delay on over-the-counter approval for Plan B.

Advocates for Plan B kept up the pressure on the administration to reverse itself. They argued, in part, that the rules were just too complicated. “The unique dual-labeling of Plan B One Step has led to confusion among consumers and health care professionals alike, particularly regarding age restrictions and whether men and women can purchase non-prescription emergency contraception,” said a letter signed by more than three dozen women’s health, reproductive rights and individual providers of health care.

“A recent Boston University study of 943 pharmacies in five major cities revealed that, when called posed as 17-year-olds seeking EC, one in five were told they could not purchase EC under any circumstances,” the letter said at the time. In fact, those 17 and older are eligible to purchase the product without a prescription; those 16 and younger may purchase it with a health provider’s written order.

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Federal Judge Strikes Down Restrictions On Morning-After Pill

A Juneau man with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is featured prominently in a new anti-smoking campaign from the Centers for Disease Control.

Fifty-seven year old Michael Patterson started smoking cigarettes at the age of nine after running away from an abusive home and living on the street. At age 44 he was diagnosed with COPD, but ignored the symptoms for eight more years, until one day he woke up gasping for breath.

“The terror that I felt for them four hours was unspeakable. It just was mind numbing, heart-gripping terror. And it did something to me,” Patterson said. “It burned the desire to ever smoke a cigarette out of my life. But it also burned a desire into my heart, because I couldn’t imagine another living person ever having to experience that.”

Patterson became an advocate, speaking to high school students and whoever would listen about the health risks associated with smoking. He says he initially wanted to reach everyone in Juneau. Then last year somebody sent him a link to the CDC website, where the agency was looking for former smokers to share their tips about quitting.

Patterson says it was “a million to one” chance that he would be chosen for the campaign. But he decided to apply anyway. A 30-second television ad featuring him debuted this week.

On Monday, Patterson was introduced to the Juneau Assembly by former member Ruth Danner, who he got to know through his advocacy efforts. He told the Assembly that it’s humbling to think about his message now reaching millions of people.

“I can’t say how much of a blessing that is to reach out and affect somebody’s life like that,” he said. “And have the opportunity to do it again and again and again.”

Patterson said he plans to bring anti-smoking causes to the Assembly in the future, and he hoped for the city’s support.

When he was done with this speech Assembly members gave him a standing ovation and shook his hand.

Links:
CDC Tips from Former Smokers
Patterson’s ad: COPD and smoking