WOMEN'S
HEALTH
Lotions, Shampoos Under Investigation
New York (LNS)--A National Science Foundation report to the American Chemical Society's New Orleans convention in March found that 27 popular shampoos, facial creams and skin lotions contained trace amounts of a chemical known to cause cancer in rats when eaten.
Now, two months later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is gearing up for a major investigation into whether the products can cause
cancer.
John Wenninger, deputy director of the FDA's cosmetic technology division emphasized that there is as yet no evidence that the shampoos and lotions can cause cancer when applied to animal or human skin. But he told the New York Post that skin specialists generally agree that some amount of any chemical spread or sprayed on the skin eventually passes into the body's blood system.
The initial National Science Foundation report was prepared by Dr. David Fine, a researcher at
Anti-Home Birth Resolution Protest
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New York (LNS) Women's health groups throughout California are rallying against a proposed state medical association resolution which would prohibit physicians from attending at births outside of hospitals.
Over 75 people demonstrated outside of the convention hall at the Disneyland Hotel on March 10 where the California Medical Association was holding its annual meeting. As a result of the demonstration, delegates in the convention hall moved to send the proposal to the Scientific Committee for further consideration, essentially tabling the issue until next year's convention.
The resolution, "Obstetrical Delivery in the Home or Outpatient Facility," would originally have considered physicians who attend home or clinic births to be engaging in unprofessional conduct. Later the resolution was modified, but the intent to restrict births to hospitals and to maintain doctors' control -remains the same.
Women opposing the resolution say that the doctors support the resolution in order to justify the use of their technology which increases profits for doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of fetal heart monitors. They argue most births are normal and that hospital intervention in normal birth with the use of drugs, electronic monitoring, forceps and surgery is both unnecesary and dangerous to mother and child.
Technology should be available in the event of complicated births, say the health groups, but they stress that complications in home births are no more frequent than those for the general hospital population.
The March 10 demonstrations were called by the Feminist Womens' Health Centers in Los Angeles and Orange County, Womencare in San Diego, and the Association for Childbirth at Home.. They plan to keep up pressure on the Association's Scientific Committee and encourage people to write or call the California Medical Association expressing opposition to the proposal.
the Thermal Electron Research Center in Massachusetts. Using an instrument especially design. ed to detect miniscule traces of one of the most carcinogenic substances known," nitrosodiethanolamine, or NDEIA, Fine analyzed a number of products found in Boston stores.
In his report to the New Orleans convention, Fine refused to name the products which had produced positive results. Instead he used a series of code letters and numbers in his report. But he provided the FDA with product names, and the FDA later released them.
NDEIA is considered a contaminant, according to the FDA, but it does not stem from unsanitary manufacturing processes. It appears to result from previously unsuspected chemical reactions among cosmetic ingredients.
"The contamination is of unknown origin right now," Wenninger told the New York Post. He said that the contamination could even be caused by would rather not be patients
such things as water used in factories or a reaction with chemicals in the air.
The products under investigation by the FDA are: Clairol Herbal Essence, Breck Shampoo for Dry Hair, PP Baby Shampoo, Mennen Baby Magic Shampoo, Head and Shoulders Shampoo, Wella Balsam, Johnson's Baby Lotion, Noxema Skin Cream, Keri Lotion, Nivea Cream Lotion, Sea and Ski Suntan Lotion, Extra Strength Desitin. Scholl Cocoa Butter Lotion, Nutraderm Dry Skin Lotion, Bain de Soleil Suntan Creme, Diaparene Crado, Scholl Rough Skin Remover, Almay Deep Mist Extra Rich Lotion, Avon Topaz, Revlon Young Blush, Max Factor Ultralucent Whipped Cream Makeup, Revlon Moon Drops, Helena Rubenstein Silk Fashion, Max Factor Ultralucent Waterproof Makeup, Clairol Creme Formula Hair Color, Helene Curtis Everynight and Extra Body Conditioner.
NURSES RATE HOSPITALS
New York (LNS) If the thought of being hospitalized makes you nervous, you're not alone. Results of a recent questionnaire filled out by 10,000 nurses across the country reveal that almost one-third of them would not want to be patients in the hospitals where they work.
The nurses were responding to a 78-item questionnaire published last May in the "Nursing 77 journal, the largest nurses' journal in the United States, with a circulation of 400,000.
Most nurses participating in the survey rated the care that hospital patients received as "low B". They attributed that lack of care to too much paper work and not enough direct nursing, and to too few nurses on duty.
Eighteen per cent of the respondents said that they knew of deaths caused accidentally by nurses, and forty-two per cent said that they knew of deaths caused by doctors. Four per cent of the nurses said that they had made a mistake they felt led to the death of a patient. One reply read, "On the 11-to-7 shift in the intensive care unit, an aide, a licensed practical nurse and I had six critically ill patients,
all on ventilators, in three separate rooms. I spent 15 minutes with one. who was hemorrhaging, and when I returned to the other room, one of the patients had accidentally disconnected himself from the ventilator, arrested and died. That was three years ago, and I still can't get it out of my mind.'
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As the results of the questionnaire imply, the blame for these failures lies far more on the hospital administrator in charge of hiring nurses than it does on the nurses themselves. And judging from the wave of hospital budget cutback particularly at big city hospitals like Boston City, where the nursing staff has been drastically reduced the situation for nurses is not about to change on its
own.
Nurses' strikes, once a rarity, have become more common in the last few years, with major strikes in San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago. A major demand in all of these strikes was more say for nurses in hospital decision-making, traditionally reserved only for hospital administrators and doctors.
NWHN CHALLENGES AGOC
"Who really speaks for women's health needs?" At the annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Women's Health Network (NWHN), held May 7-8, 1977, in Washington, DC, Network members voiced grave concern over the recent claim of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) that it is "the spokesman for women's health care."
Moreover the Network is alarmed by the AGOC's current efforts to have the obstetrician-gynecologist designated as the primary care physician for women in forthcoming National Health Care legislation. At best, this is an absurd proposition, since obstetrician-gynecologists are surgical specialists whose speciality does not qualify them for a primary care role. Their speciality is limited to only one aspect of women's health care, and their performance in this is already under, severe
criticism. Also, it is highly presumtious for an organization that is 100% professional and 98% male to calim to speak for the health needs of
women.
a
The National Women's Health Network, coalition of 500 key women's health groups, individual consumers and health providers, is mounting a national campaign to alert the Federal Govern. ment to the health concerns of women. These include: safer methods of childbirth; an end to sterilization abuses and unnecessary hysterectomies, less hazardous birth control methods, stronger requirements for informed consent, and stricter FDA surveillance over drugs and hormones prescribed for women.
The Network is presently working to secure representation on all FDA committees and at all cont. on page 14 June, 1977/What She Wants/page 7