California Acupuncture Board May Be Abolished

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

The Schwarzenegger administration and some Democratic legislators are moving to abolish the state board that regulates acupuncturists, saying that the board has been more concerned with promoting acupuncture than with protecting patient safety [1]. Next year, unless the state legislature renews it, the board will automatically expire and the California Department of Consumer Affairs would assume responsibility for its activities.

The move to abolish is supported by a 2004 report by the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state panel that evaluates government matters for lawmakers. The report concluded that board's public educational materials go "beyond the accepted research findings" by stating that acupuncture can treat migraines, sinusitis, the common cold, tonsillitis, asthma, inflammation of the eyes, addictions, myopia, duodenal ulcer and other gastrointestinal disorders, trigeminal neuralgia, Meniere’s disease, tennis elbow, paralysis from stroke, speech aphasia, sciatica, osteoarthritis., rheumatoid conditions, pain management, various addictions, mental disorders, and AIDS. The commission stated that such claims are "of particular concern given that the mission of the Acupuncture Board is to protect consumers, not to sell the public on alternative health care treatments." [2]

References

Rau J. Board needles over patient safety. Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2005.
Regulation of Acupuncture: A Complementary Medicine Framework. Little Hoover Commission, September 2004.

This page was posted on June 30, 2005.