Health & Fitness

Just Can't Wait

Crohn's disease sufferer pursues legal access to non-public restrooms.

Judith Doner Berne

Special to the Jewish News

M

y name is Jill Sklar and I have
Crohn's disease': the 39-year-old
Huntington Woods wife, mother
and journalist testified at a recent state Senate
hearing on a proposed Restroom Access Act.
Sklar's six-year campaign to allow people
with certain medical conditions to use
employee-only restrooms results from her
own 20-year battle with Crohn's.
Years of dashing to a public restroom when
someone refused to let her use a non-public
facility in a retail store — and the occasional
embarrassment of not getting there in time
— prompted her to pursue legislation to
permit it.
The Restroom Access Act (House Bill
5046) is designed to aid people who suffer
from inflammatory bowel diseases such as
Crohn's and ulcerative colitis as well as other
gastrointestinal, urological and neurological
conditions that, either temporarily or perma-
nently, cause bowel or urinary incontinence
or urgency.
To use a private restroom, the proposed
law requires a person to present a doctor's
statement on a prescription form that indi-
cates he or she suffers from a disease that
requires immediate access to a toilet.
When the Michigan House passed it by a
72-35 vote last fall, it also induded pregnant
women. It's that version that awaits a sec-
ond hearing by the Senate's Commerce and
Tourism Committee where "chances are very,
very good" that it will come out of committee
and onto the floor this session, says Norm
Saari, chief of staff to committee chairman
Jason Allen, R-Traverse City
"I know that Brooks Patterson [the
Oaldand County executive] is a strong propo-
nent of this proposed legislation' Saari says.
It has also been unanimously endorsed
by the Oaldand County Board of
Commissioners.
If the bill receives Senate approval, Gov.
Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign it into
law. Supporters say that more than 50,000
Michigan residents could be affected.

Jews Susceptible To Crohn's,
Ulcerative Colitis

If the Restroom Access Act becomes
law in Michigan, it will help people with
ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease,
two conditions which affect Jews at a
greater rate than the general popula-
tion.
"Jewish people have several times
the risk of having Crohn's disease and

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August 7 . 2008

Jill Sklar and her son, Jonah, 12

Sklar, who formerly wrote for the Detroit
Jewish News, originally made the case for
such a law to her state representative, Andy
Meisner, D-Ferndale.
"We were able to develop a best-in-the-
country model legislation, which many states
have copied," Meisner says.
"I can't believe it has taken six years," Sklar
says.
Maryland passed similar legislation 20
years ago. And while Michigan has delayed, it
has become law in Illinois, Minnesota, Texas,
Kentucky and Tennessee, and is under con-
sideration in 12 other states.
Michigan, Sklar told the Senate commit-
tee,"is the only state where it has had to be

ulcerative colitis," said Dr. Mitchell
S. Cappell, chief of the Division of
Gastroenterology at William Beaumont
Hospital, Royal Oak.
They are about four times more like-
ly to suffer from Crohn's disease and
about seven times more likely to suffer
from ulcerative colitis than the general
population in America, he reported,
citing statistics presented in the

introduced multiple times. There's no good
reason for the hold-up: she says.
The bill has bi-partisan support and
although the Michigan Chamber of
Commerce had reservations, it's supported by
the Michigan Association of Retailers. "The
whole point of this legislation is that we can't
wait," Sklar says.
"I've been following the bill very closely':
says State Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington
Woods."It's ridiculous that we are so slow. I
just applaud Jill. She's been so tenacious."
Both Sklar and Meisner see the proposed
law as a win for business as well as the Afflict-
ed consumer."There's explicit language in the
bill that a business doesn't need to spend one

American Journal of Gastroenterology
in 2006.
"There is a genetic component
which is specific to Ashkenazi Jews,"
said Cappell, a Southfield resident and
member of Young Israel of Southfield.
Overall, about 750,000 Americans
have ulcerative colitis and a similar
number have Crohn's disease. The
conditions are closely related and

penny to comply with the act," he says.
And "although I'm a strong proponent of
an injured plaintiff having his day in court,
the bill offers special protection so that retail-
ers don't have any added legal exposure':
Meisner says.
"I've walked into some really scary bath-
rooms," Sklar says, "and just been grateful
they existed."
The bill also states that the act doesn't
apply if showing a person where the restroom
is would mean leaving the store unattended.
Sklar is in remission thanks to several sur-
geries and a once-a-week injection, but she
still feels more comfortable shopping on the
Internet rather than in local stores, she told
the Senate committee.
"Those of us who are affected with these
conditions often are forced to do our shop-
ping online in the comfort of our homes,
where bathroom access is a given': she says.
"We could spend more dollars locally if the
bill becomes law"
"From a medical point of view, there's
a need for access to bathrooms': says Dr.
Mitchell S. Cappell, M.D., PhD., chief of the
Division of Gastroenterology at William
Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. "It benefits
society with a very small accommodation
required."
But he also sees "a small potential for abuse.
" To assure that people use the law legitimate-
ly, Cappell suggests that the prescription be
renewed once every year or twont shouldn't
be something that you get for life."
"Nothing in the bill prevents a doctor from
putting an expiration date on the prescrip-
tion," Sklar says.
Sklar has written three books, two to help
those with Crohn's disease and ulcerative
colitis, and the last, The Five Gifts of Illness, for
which she interviewed more than 100 people
who have suffered a chronic or life-threaten-
ing illness. Her father-in-law, Farmington
Hills gastroenterologist Dr. Manuel Sklar,
wrote the forward to her first two books.
She is married to attorney Joel Sklar. Their
son Jonah, 12, is a seventh-grader at the
Roeper School in Birmingham. The Sklars are
members of Temple Emanu-El, Oak Park. ❑

together are referred to as inflamma-
tory bowel disease, Cappell said. "Both
involve inflammation of the colon or
small intestine."
He listed these common symptoms:
rectal bleeding, diarrhea, abdominal
pain and fever. The diarrhea may be
severe, and in such cases, may require
urgent access to a restroom.

- Judith Doner Berne