NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS NEWS UPDATE

A bi-monthly report submitted by the national associations to keep you up-to-date on the latest activities affecting national laws and legislation American Chiropractic Association (ACA) ACA Responds Aggressively to PBS ACA has aggressively responded to PBS executives following an irresponsible episode of "Scientific American Frontiers" that characterized chiropractic care as a fraudulent hoax. The chiropractic portion of the June 4 episode, titled "'A Different Way to Heal?", featured a group of admit­ted chiropractic antagonists, representa­tives of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), as "expert" health care sources. "The producers of your pro­gram could not have expected objectivity from this organization," wrote ACA Presi­dent, Daryl Wills, in a June 7 letter to the PBS president. "And, as a viewer of pub­lic television, I expect more reliable infor­mation than what the program offered. "The program did not offer any of your pro-chiropractic guests an opportunity to rebut the foolish statements made by the NCAHF group and former doctor of chi­ropractic, John Badanes," wrote Dr. Wills. Finally, Dr. Wills pointed out that PBS' biased, misleading and malicious attack has severely and wrongfully damaged the reputation of the chiropractic profession and chiropractic colleges. ACA has urged PBS to reconsider the assertions made in the program, and has called on PBS to pub­licly withdraw the assertions with an apol­ogy to the ACA and to the nation's chiro­practic colleges. Because PBS is a foundation sup­ported, in part, by federal grants, there are other opportunities for action to explore, and ACA intends to do so. To view a copy of ACA's response, please go to http://www.acatoday.com/media/record/ pJbs.shtml. If this program aired in your community, and you wish to contact your local PBS affiliate, feel free to use the let­ter as a base for your own response. You can find the contact information for your local affiliate by using this PBS "Station Finder", http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/ in.dcx.ktmJ. International Chiropractors Association (ICA) The New York Chiropractic Councel, ICA's affiliate association in The Empire State, will hold its annual convention at Ground Zero in New York, Nobember 15-17"\ 2002. This great event will be a tribute to the chiropractors from around the nation that volunteered at Ground Zero, and a reunion that will include recognition from local dig­nitaries, the American Red Cross and St. Paul's Chapel. Speakers will include Drs. C. J. Mertz, Bob Braile, Pat Gentempo, David Jackson, Jim Sigafoose and Tedd Korea Programs will be available for con­tinuing education credits. The Council will also be offering a dinner cruise around Manhattan with music and dancing on Fri­day evening, at no additional cost to the first 100 doctors registered for the conven­tion. ICA encourages doctors from all parts of the nation to support this historic gath­ering, and, at the same time, to support the city that suffered the greatest and gave the most in the wake of the September 11th tragedies. For more information or to reg­ister, call the NYCC at 718-386-3988, today! ICA is, also, supporting a tremendous new project organized to collect and pub­lish important inspirational and historic information on women in chiropractic. Dr. Jacalyn Buettner, a private practi­tioner in California, is working to develop a written record that can serve as a re­source base for women now in practice, in chiropractic school, or considering a chiropractic career. The name of this project, "Unstoppable Women in Chiro­practic", was chosen to capture the spirit of the thousands of pioneering and ser­vice-oriented women who have made such great contributions to the chiroprac­tic profession over the years. ICA strongly urges anyone interested in contributing to this important project to contact Dr. Buettner by e-mail at [email protected], or fax: at415421-21I6. World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) The WCA's International Board of Governors (IBG) voted on 39 resolutions that will guide the organization's policies, procedures and actions. Among those that passed was a statement encouraging co­operation with other chiropractic organi­zations that share its values. The IBG also decided that the WCA may become involved in state or international issues when it believes it would be in the best interest of subluxation-based chiro­practic—even if that means opposing the dominant organization in the specific state or country. "Too often, an organization represents only one segment of the chiro­practic community," states WCA President Terry A. Rondberg. "The WCA has de­cided it cannot abandon those doctors who are disenfranchised and need help because of this situation." WCA Board of Governors member Matthew McCoy, DC, flew to Geneva for a conference with officials of the World Health Organization (WHO). He dis­cussed WHO's Tradtitional Medicine Strategy and the steps and help neces­sary for WHO to develop guidelines for chiropractic. These guidelines would be used to assist nations of the world in developing policies for the introduction of chiropractic into their health care sys­tems. The WCA has issued a strongly worded position paper stating that chiropractic care to detect and correct vertebral subluxations offers benefits for all people, including those who do not demonstrate symptoms of a disease or health condi­tion. The paper emphasizes that the pres­ence of symptoms and/or a medical diag­nosis should not be a factor in determin­ing the need for chiropractic care, and that the presence of symptoms should never be required by any chiropractic board, insurance company or court of law to justify chiropractic care to any patient. For more information, see hXtp'JI www.worldchiropracticalliance.org. I