AB - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 30, 1998
Shocked at the payments

Doc doubts herbal cures

BUYER BEWARE, warns a
local doctor regarding the
use of herbal remedies and
herbal clinics around town.

‘Herbalists, I honestly
have serious doubts about,”’
said Dr, Geoff Appleton, the
B.C. Mettical Association’s
Tepresentative for the north.

Appleton said anyone can
go to Central America, take
a course and then-open up a
clinic,

He said herbalists arc bec-
oming just a big unregulated
business in Terrace.

‘We can’t say that what
they give out is good just
because they’re herbal.
Heroin is natura] but you’re
certainly not going to use
it,”

But Frances Birdsell, natu-
ral health practitioner and
owner of the Viva Clinic,
said herbs work to detoxify
and cleanse the body. They
also boost a person's natural
defences to enable them to
resist further infections, she
said.

Birdsell works with clients
to recover their health in a
natural, integrated way. She
said she doesn’t diagnose.

Instead, Birdsell says she

uses herbs, diet,
aromatherapy, clay
poullices, balhs, applied

heat, exercise and natural’
therapies to restore balance
in the body from disease.

Appleton doesn’t refer
patients to naturalists or her-
balists because he’s not
certain whether or not what
they practice really works.

“People that are selling
these things don’t have to
prove that their herbs work
or that they are effective,’’
he said. ,

While pharmaceutical
companies must first prove
their products work, and
second, prove they are safe,

Strike

halted

UNIONIZED WORKERS
at Enrocan’s Kitimat pulp
mill bave pushed back strike
plans because of wrangling
over the legality of a strike
vote.

The 370 members of Lo-
cal 298 of the Communica-
tions, Energy and Paper-

workers Union were set to.

walk at 7:30 am. Monday
after talks last week failed
to reach a settlement on lo-
cal issues,

“The local issues are still
there and are unresolved,”
said Local 298 president
Bill Whitty.

However Lon Schroeder,
general manager of
Eurecan, said the company
had a question about the
validity of the union’s strike
mandate, delivered in a vote
Aug, 9 and 10,

Schroeder told the union
the company intended to
take that question up in a
hearing with the B.C,
Labour Relations Board
(LRB) but set that move
aside in favour of new talks.

In turn, to avoid the hear-
ing, Whitty said the union
agreed to not walk out Mon-
day, instead push back their
negotiations deadline to Oct.
7,

“We don’t have any com-
fort in the impartiality of the
LRB,”’ be added.

The sides will resume ne-
goliations Oct. 5 and Whitty
said the negotiating team
will take whatever results
from those talks to its mem-
bership — with a recom-
mendation — on Cct. 7.

He added if the member-
ship rejects the result the
union will serve a new 72-
hour strike notice,

The union previously re-
jected an offer from the
company in voting Sept. 16,
That caused it to serve a 10
day/72-hour strike notice,
which came due Sept. 28,

Outstanding issues include
a company plan to phase out
dedicated first aid at»
tendants,

Schroeder said the compa-
ny’s proposals relate to
making the mill more com-
petitive.

“This isn’t about becom-—

ing competitive, it isn’t
about the best use of people-

power at the mill, it's about »
replied |

downsizing,’*

herbalists don’t have to
authenticate what they use,
Appleton added.

“There’s no force to
check up on them,”’ he said.

He’s also shocked at how
much people pay for herbal
remedies.

‘Some of these people
charge heftier bills than
physicians get to. People
spend hundreds of dallars
on herbs.’”

Appleton said he’s had
patients ask him whether or

not the herbs they’ve bought
were safe.

Most times, he said, he
can’t answer their questions
because the — ingredients
aren’t marked on the pack-
ages,

He also said many doctors
aren’t sure about how
cerlain herbs are going to
interfere with prescribed
medication. _

But Birdsell and a citizens
health group in Vancouver

say there’s no proof that
herbs do any harm, either.

Birdsell said she always
checks medications against
the herbs given out as part
of her life energy assess-
ment program,

She said she knuws the
remedies work because she
has been cured of an un-
diagnosed diseased liver
through an herbalist.

She’s invited Appleton to
cooperate with herbalists.

A Season O

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The Law Office of
Halfyard & Wright,

welcomes

David Mardiros

to the firm
Mr. Mardiros will be practising
in the areas of civil litigation,

criminal law and aboriginal law

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