LOS ANGELES – California's landmark aid-in-dying law took effect a year ago Thursday – and advocates say it is working as intended, giving mentally competent, terminally ill people the option to get a prescription for drugs that can end their lives peacefully.

There are no statistics on how many people have chosen this option, but more than 500 people have obtained the prescription.

Kat West, national director of policy and programs for Compassion and Choices, a pro-medical, aid-in-dying group, says many people get the medication but may not use it right away, or at all.

"Terminally ill people want to have the medication primarily for the sense of peace and the comfort that it brings and that they can choose to take if their suffering becomes unbearable," she states.

About 500 hospitals and more than 100 hospice organizations have adopted policies to support patients who choose this option.

About 80 percent of insurance plans cover the medication, including Medi-Cal, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter, Blue Cross Blue Shield and many local health plans.

Before its passage, the Roman Catholic Church and other groups opposed the California End-Of-Life Option Act, citing religious and moral concerns.

West says her group is launching a major public awareness campaign to clear up misconceptions, so people can feel more comfortable considering the option should the need arise.

"Medical aid in dying should become normalized and integrated into the standard of care in California so that everyone has meaningful access to this compassionate end-of-life care option," she stresses.

The bill was inspired by the story of Brittany Maynard, a California newlywed with a terminal brain tumor who had to travel to Oregon in 2014 in order to receive the medication and end her life peacefully.

California is one of six states, plus Washington, D.C., that permits the practice.





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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon nurses are holding a conference today on an important topic facing the health industry: equitable outcomes for patients.

The Oregon Nurses Association's Health Equity Conference in Portland today and Friday is focusing on the different outcomes from the health system for people of color. For instance, the maternal mortality rate for Black women is three times the rate that it is for white women.

Deborah Riddick, public policy and government relations director for the Oregon Nurses Association, said nurses interact with patients at every level of care.

"If we have that amount of access to patients, to communities, to their families, then it would make sense that if there's a problem like health equity, that we would be the ideal folks to be able to plug the gap and be able to use some of our knowledge and our skills to address the problem," Riddick contended.

During the pandemic, Oregonians of color have faced disproportionate health impacts. Hispanic Oregonians make up 13% of the state's population but are nearly 30% of COVID-19 cases where the ethnicity is known, according to state data.

D. Watkins, editor at large for Salon who is speaking at the Health Equity Conference, said stigmas around health care especially are strong for Black communities, and pointed out the words health professionals use are important.

"Sometimes, basic things like the way we use language when we talk about patients or when patients talk about these different institutions is the root of the problem," Watkins explained. "And it's what we need to fix if we want to be strong, and we want to solve a lot of the problems that we have."

The Oregon Nurses Association has been working to promote health equity in the state through the Legislature. Riddick noted the union pushed for a bill this session that would have declared racism a public health crisis.

"Unfortunately, there was not enough support for the bill that it ultimately was reduced down to simply a resolution," Riddick lamented. "A lot of the things that required funding were pulled out, which was a great disappointment to many of the community members that worked throughout the session around the bill."

Despite the bill not passing, Riddick emphasized it was a good learning experience for pushing this type of policy. She added the House bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, is on a panel at the conference.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A new study argued the current federal limit for exposure to wireless radiation should be hundreds of times lower than it is, for children.

Researchers from the Environmental Working Group took methodology developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to assess human health risks from toxic chemicals, and applied it to radiofrequency (RF) radiation from wireless devices, including cellphones, tablets and 5G networks.

Dr. Olga Naidenko, vice president for science investigations for the Environmental Working Group and the study's co-author, said standards should be updated, and in the meantime, she suggested parents take simple steps to reduce their kids' RF exposure.

"Teaching children not to sleep with the phone under the pillow, that is probably a good first step," Naidenko advised. "And for example, instead of clutching it to the chest, to put the tablet or the phone on the table."

The wireless industry countered its products are safe and comply with Federal Communications Commission rules, but Naidenko noted the studies underpinning those standards are 25 years old and apply only to adults.

A 2018 study from the National Toxicology Program linked wireless radiation to heart and brain tumors in rats.

Nonetheless, the California Legislature is considering two bills, Senate Bill 556 and Assembly Bill 537, which would make it harder for cities to place limits on where new 5G cell towers can be installed.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, professor emeritus of pediatrics and occupational and environmental Health at George Washington University, said until 5G is proven safe, he supports local ordinances like those in Los Altos and Petaluma that require a 500-foot setback from schools and homes.

"5G towers should be placed far away from human beings," Paulson contended. "The distance provides the protection, because the farther away you get, the less energy gets to people."

Paulson thinks the government should set separate wireless-radiation limits for children. The World Health Organization classified cellphone radiation as a possible carcinogen in 2011.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis is promising to block any state money from going to the parent company of ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's unless it reverses a decision to stop selling its products in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

DeSantis is one of several Republican politicians looking to punish Unilever, the London-based parent company of the ice-cream maker, for curtailing sales in the region. But as COVID cases continue to skyrocket stateside, state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the governor should focus on containing the more contagious Delta variant.

"We've had the highest hospitalization rates than we've ever had," she said. "You have people who are dying from this variant - it's very aggressive - and we have a governor who is trying to distract from his failed response, and insert himself and say what an ice-cream company can and cannot do."

On Tuesday, DeSantis downplayed the spike in cases, but issued a statement saying, "I will not stand idly by as 'woke' corporate ideologues seek to boycott and divest from our ally, Israel."

Driskell said she thinks the governor's stance rings hypocritical when he positions himself to fight against discrimination in Israel - but signs into law a bill such as HB 1, to stop groups such as Black Lives Matter from peacefully protesting.

"And then," she said, "we have a governor who cracked down on those very same protesters, who basically were just asking to be treated equally; who were just asking for unarmed black people to not be killed at the hands of law enforcement."

Unilever now must either "cease its boycott" of Israel within 90 days or join the list of other companies Florida refuses to do business with because of their positions on Israel's West Bank policies. Unilever's 400 brands include Lipton tea, Dove personal-care products and Hellmann's mayonnaise. Unilever said it employs more than 2,000 people in Israel and "rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance."