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Health officials warn: stop vaping THC products

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If you’re vaping products containing THC, be advised that there’s no way of knowing what’s in them. John Meiman is Chief Medical Officer with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which is advising people to stop vaping such products.

“Because it’s not a legal product, there’s no regulation that could . . . potentially control what can be in those products. We don’t know what chemicals could be in there, we don’t know if any of them could be causing illness, and because they’re unregulated there’s no way that we can ensure that there’s safety.

More than two dozen people in Wisconsin have been hospitalized with severe chemical pneumonia, or lung inflammation. The majority of those cases have been linked to vaping products containing THC. In addition to DHS, the City of Milwaukee Health Department also issued an alert, urging residents to stop vaping. The warnings follow the nation’s first reported death attributed to vaping, reported by public health officials in Illinois.

Earlier this week, legislators in Madison introduced a bill which would increase the age to purchase e-cigarettes and tobacco products in Wisconsin to 21.

“Eighty percent of our graduating seniors turn 18 in high school. And so it’s so easy for kids to get their hands on vaping products, because they know somebody in their school who’s 18,” state Senator Howard Marklein said. “The goal of this bill to reduce the access for kids to get their hands on tobacco and vaping products.”

 

Dental therapy license bill gets public hearing

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At the Capitol on Wednesday, a Senate Committee heard hours of testimony on a bill to create a dental therapist license in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dental Association President Patrick Tepe is opposed. Authorizing dental therapy will not impact the cost of dental care. It will not bring the cost down for patients, it will not bring the cost down for the state. It will not bring the cost down for dental insurers, or for employers. The only one that’s going to save is the employer of the dental therapist” Tepe told members of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.  “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but we have to be clear on it. This is not going to save the Medicaid program money. This is not going to save the state money, this is not going to save the patients money.”

Supporters said the bill is designed to be part of efforts to address a dentist shortage in rural areas and under served communities. Dental therapists are a step below a dentist, but can work in coordination with them.

Matt Crespin is with the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin.”You know we talked about is the cost going to go down? Well it’s not going to go down, because you know what else isn’t going to go down, the quality of care that’s being provided to the patient. Because those dental therapists are trained at the same standards that dentists are trained to,” Crespin said.

T.R. Williams with the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association said that care provided by dental therapists is in no way “second class”

“So although it hasn’t been declared necessarily that dental therapy is somehow supporting second tier service for second class people, I want to be super explicit in my testimony to say that the legacy of community health centers, the pedigree of our providers at all levels in the oral health, primary health and behavioral health that we do, doesn’t sit well with second class service for second class citizens.”

In addition to the state Dental Association, the bill is opposed by Marquette University, home to Wisconsin’s only dental school.

Scammers promise free DNA testing kits in new robocalls

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It’s a new twist on an old phone scam.

A new robocall scam making the rounds promises a free DNA testing kit. “The caller might say the test is a free way to get early diagnoses for diseases like cancer or just that it’s a free test and people are often interested in their DNA.”

State consumer protection administrator Michelle Reinen says all the scammers want is your social security information, because it’s covered by Medicare. That’s a lie. 

“It’s really important to know that Medicare does not market DNA testing kits to the general public. Medicare doesn’t do random unsolicited phone calls to consumers asking for their personally identifiable information.”

Reinen says the scammers are spoofing their phone numbers to look like they’re calling from Washington DC. 

If you get one of these phone calls, it’s best to just hang up or delete the voice mail.

Report: booze & opioids could be linked to drop in Wisconsin life expectancy

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A new report finds life expectancy in Wisconsin is on a downward trend. Life expectancy here has dropped for two years in a row. For a baby born in Wisconsin between 2015 and 2017 it’s 80 years, down from 80.2 years for babies born two years earlier.

A big reason, according to findings released Monday, is increased deaths linked to abuse of opioids and alcohol. Drug and alcohol deaths in Wisconsin have more than tripled since 1999, from 593 to over 19 hundred in 2017.

“Going back to 1999, the alcohol death in Wisconsin was about 7 per 100,000. That was very close to the national rate,” said Mark Sommerhauser, Communications Director/Researcher with Wisconsin Policy Forum. “By 2017, the most recent year that we have data for, in Wisconsin our death rate was about 13 and 1/2, almost 14 per 100,000 compared to the national rate which was about 11 per 100,000.

When it comes to opioid related deaths in the state, 65 died in 1999 compared to just over 900 2 years ago. The findings contained in the report mirror a national trend driven by increasing rates of death from drugs, alcohol or suicide

Drug deaths in Milwaukee County on record pace

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Drug deaths statewide were down in 2018, but Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are on pace for a near-record high number this year. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office tweets that if the pace of overdose deaths continues, 423 people in Milwaukee will die from drugs this year.

That would be the highest number in almost a decade. District Attorney John Chisolm calls the spike in drug deaths an “imminent public health crisis.” The Journal Sentinel reports that the Medical Examiner’s Office has responded to 14 probable overdose deaths since Friday morning, including three people dying in less than one hour Sunday.

Wisconsin opioid deaths dropped in 2018

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Drugs (PHOTO: Jackie Johnson)

Wisconsin opioid deaths dropped 10 percent in 2018. The 838 opioid deaths in the state were the fewest since 2015, according to the Department of Health Services. DHS has also unveiled a new online tool, Data Direct: Opioids. It includes the most up-to-date information the agency has collected on opioid use, hospitalizations and deaths.

The data shows:

  • emergency room visits for opioid-related overdoses increased by 64 percent from 2014-18. Still, inpatient stays for overdoses dropped over that period by 15 percent.
  • the 838 deaths were down from 932 in 2017. In 2015, there were 850 opioid-related deaths.
  • an estimated one in six Wisconsinites were prescribed and used an opioid in the past year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control released preliminary data for 2018 which indicates that the number of Americans who died from drug overdoses fell in 2018, following years of increases. That includes about 47,600 opioid deaths in 2018 compared to 49,000 in 2017.

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Republicans unveil package of mental health bills

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Legislative Republicans unveiled a package of bills on Tuesday aimed at improving mental health in Wisconsin.

One of the bills will increase the funding available to non profits for youth mental health services. Boys and Girls Club of Wisconsin executive director Andy Gussert says helping kids as they go through childhood is a vital and needed task. 

“There are some people who may want to debate whether we should spend money on addressing youth mental health or trauma informed care. But it’s not really debate. We will spend money on these youths at one time or another.”

Another bill will overhaul how the state licenses psychologists, something that Dr. Bruce Erdmann says is sorely needed. 

“The current licensing law was drafted in the early 1990s, when the internet was in its infancy, email was only used by a select few and nerds, cell phones were unheard of, and no one knew anything about texting.”

Other bills will encourage psychiatrists to move to Wisconsin though the use of tax deductions, and also provide funding for the Clubhouse organization to improve mental heath facilities. 

Eight children with severe lung injuries were all vaping, says Children’s Hospital

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State agencies and the Children’s Hospital are investigating a rash of lung injuries in teens that might be due to vaping.

Eight children have been brought to Children’s Hospital with severe lung problems in the last month.

Chief medical officer Dr. Michael Gutzeit says they’ve brought in the Department of Health Services to help them investigate. 

“They’re investigating the cause and perhaps the origin of that, whether it may be a singular batch or whether there might be other factors involved.”

“The focus here has been treating the primary cause and obviously trying to understand what we can do to support the patients during this difficult time that they’re having.”

One of the children remains in the hospital, the rest were treated and released. 

Madison Rastafarian church reopens

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WRN photo

A controversial Rastafarian Church is once again open in Madison but is not distributing marijuana. The Lion of Judah House of Rastafari has reopened in downtown Madison. Founders Jesse Schworck and Dylan Bangert are accused of selling marijuana out of the church.

Both men claim they were giving it away as part of the religion. For now, Schworck told WKOW 27, they’re keeping cannabis out of the church, so they can focus on getting their programs running again.

“We don’t want to jeapordize our self and also so many people that are counting on us by getting a bail jumping or some other charge that would put our whole case in jeapardy,” Schwork said. This week a judge changed the men’s bail conditions, allowing them to return as long as marijuana is no longer distributed.

WIBA

Senator Baldwin says Dems need to step up against continued attacks against Affordable Care Act

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The Trump administration and Democrats were in federal court on Tuesday delivering arguments in a case that challenges the Affordable Care Act.

Senator Tammy Baldwin says this is just more indication that President Trump doesn’t care about the healthcare for average Americans. 

“He’s in court right now, trying to take people’s private health insurance away. And it would impact millions of Americans.”

Wisconsin had previously been a part of that lawsuit before Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul pulled Wisconsin out of the hearings. Baldwin says Republicans just can’t let the health care bill go.

“Whether it was the fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act, whether it was the administration’s various rules that have been put into place that weaken or sabotage the Affordable Care Act.”

Congressman Ron Kind says that half of all Wisconsinites could lose their health care coverage if the ACA is repealed and pre-existing conditions protections are lifted.