Vegas
04-26-2007, 11:58 AM
http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1144838.html
Dayna Johnson has been turned away from gas station restrooms when she really, really had to go. For a sufferer from Crohn's disease, a chronic intestinal condition that brings on sudden, urgent bouts of diarrhea, that leaves only one alternative.
"Rush to the next place," said Johnson, 23, of Orono, who's had the problem since fifth grade.
Help may be on the way for Johnson and 27,000 other Minnesotans with inflammatory bowel diseases that make finding a bathroom -- fast! -- a matter of frequent and critical concern. The state Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require retailers to open their employee restrooms to folks such as Johnson.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, has already generated some public interest -- giggles, too -- as the "Poop Bill." But it's no laughing matter for the afflicted.
"If you're in a place that doesn't have bathrooms, it causes severe panic," Johnson said. "And that just makes it worse."
Most people with Crohn's suffered their discomfort and embarrassment in silence until an Illinois teenager named Ally Bain soiled herself three years ago in an Old Navy store. She had been denied access to the employee restroom despite crying, hunching over in pain and showing the manager a medical card reading "I CAN'T WAIT."
Instead of retreating in humiliation, Ally spoke out. Her efforts spurred a unanimous Illinois legislature in 2005 to enact "Ally's Law," upon which Prettner Solon's delicately titled Restroom Access Act is based. Maryland has followed with a similar law, and legislators in Michigan and Texas also have considered it.
Access, with exceptions
Under Minnesota Senate File 140, stores would have to let people with "a medical condition that requires immediate access to a restroom" use the employee facilities, but only if at least three workers were on duty, no obvious safety or security risks would be incurred and the requester showed a medical card or doctor's letter.
First violations would bring only a warning letter from the city attorney; subsequent offenses could warrant petty misdemeanor charges and a fine. Stores would not be forced to provide appropriate facilities where none exist.
Those exceptions and limitations addressed many of the objections to the bill raised by Mike Hickey of the National Federation of Independent Business. However, the Senate narrowly rejected an attempt to provide greater protection against injury lawsuits for retailers who comply with the law.
Hickey said the higher standard of lawsuit protection is the same that applies in the state's Good Samaritan law, which covers those who directly assist people suffering medical emergencies.
The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 52 to 10, but its prospects of making it into law this year appear dim. The House companion bill didn't clear committee hearings amid a dispute with a business lobby over the legal liability provisions, and its sponsor, Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, is already looking beyond this legislative session.
"A lot of work needs to be done to make people aware of this problem," she said. Bringing together retailers and advocates from the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America could foster a solution without legislation, she said. If not, she added, the Senate bill could get House action next year.
Not pretty
Meanwhile, said James Fennell, executive director of the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, the legislative debate has at least raised the visibility of an issue that "is not pretty; we're talking about diarrhea, explosions of your colon."
Crohn's and related diseases limit absorption of nutrients in the digestive tract, meaning food passes through with alarming speed. Some sufferers won't even leave their homes for fear of not finding a restroom when they need it, Fennell said.
Dayna Johnson said she tries to control her Crohn's with medication, by avoiding dairy, high-fiber and fried foods, and by careful planning. "I have an hour commute to my job" at the Crohn's Foundation in St. Paul, she said. "So I don't eat breakfast until I get there. But all of us try to lead a very normal life."
If the Restroom Access Act became law, she added, "it'd be one less thing to worry about."
Dayna Johnson has been turned away from gas station restrooms when she really, really had to go. For a sufferer from Crohn's disease, a chronic intestinal condition that brings on sudden, urgent bouts of diarrhea, that leaves only one alternative.
"Rush to the next place," said Johnson, 23, of Orono, who's had the problem since fifth grade.
Help may be on the way for Johnson and 27,000 other Minnesotans with inflammatory bowel diseases that make finding a bathroom -- fast! -- a matter of frequent and critical concern. The state Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require retailers to open their employee restrooms to folks such as Johnson.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, has already generated some public interest -- giggles, too -- as the "Poop Bill." But it's no laughing matter for the afflicted.
"If you're in a place that doesn't have bathrooms, it causes severe panic," Johnson said. "And that just makes it worse."
Most people with Crohn's suffered their discomfort and embarrassment in silence until an Illinois teenager named Ally Bain soiled herself three years ago in an Old Navy store. She had been denied access to the employee restroom despite crying, hunching over in pain and showing the manager a medical card reading "I CAN'T WAIT."
Instead of retreating in humiliation, Ally spoke out. Her efforts spurred a unanimous Illinois legislature in 2005 to enact "Ally's Law," upon which Prettner Solon's delicately titled Restroom Access Act is based. Maryland has followed with a similar law, and legislators in Michigan and Texas also have considered it.
Access, with exceptions
Under Minnesota Senate File 140, stores would have to let people with "a medical condition that requires immediate access to a restroom" use the employee facilities, but only if at least three workers were on duty, no obvious safety or security risks would be incurred and the requester showed a medical card or doctor's letter.
First violations would bring only a warning letter from the city attorney; subsequent offenses could warrant petty misdemeanor charges and a fine. Stores would not be forced to provide appropriate facilities where none exist.
Those exceptions and limitations addressed many of the objections to the bill raised by Mike Hickey of the National Federation of Independent Business. However, the Senate narrowly rejected an attempt to provide greater protection against injury lawsuits for retailers who comply with the law.
Hickey said the higher standard of lawsuit protection is the same that applies in the state's Good Samaritan law, which covers those who directly assist people suffering medical emergencies.
The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 52 to 10, but its prospects of making it into law this year appear dim. The House companion bill didn't clear committee hearings amid a dispute with a business lobby over the legal liability provisions, and its sponsor, Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, is already looking beyond this legislative session.
"A lot of work needs to be done to make people aware of this problem," she said. Bringing together retailers and advocates from the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America could foster a solution without legislation, she said. If not, she added, the Senate bill could get House action next year.
Not pretty
Meanwhile, said James Fennell, executive director of the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, the legislative debate has at least raised the visibility of an issue that "is not pretty; we're talking about diarrhea, explosions of your colon."
Crohn's and related diseases limit absorption of nutrients in the digestive tract, meaning food passes through with alarming speed. Some sufferers won't even leave their homes for fear of not finding a restroom when they need it, Fennell said.
Dayna Johnson said she tries to control her Crohn's with medication, by avoiding dairy, high-fiber and fried foods, and by careful planning. "I have an hour commute to my job" at the Crohn's Foundation in St. Paul, she said. "So I don't eat breakfast until I get there. But all of us try to lead a very normal life."
If the Restroom Access Act became law, she added, "it'd be one less thing to worry about."