| Is your government doing enough to protect
you from! the dangers of vitamin supplements? The absurdity
of that question would be comical if it weren't the basis
of an international drive to severely limit our access to
dietary supplements.
In yesterday's e-Alert I gave you some background
on the "European Union Directive on Dietary Supplements"
that will become law in August of 2005. Among the 25 European
Union (EU) nations (representing more than 450 million people),
this directive reclassifies vitamin supplements as "medical
drugs," mandates low dosage levels, and outlaws many
supplement ingredients that are currently widely available.
Created to "protect" consumers, the directive will
do exactly the opposite by denying consumers access to natural
therapeutic supplements.
But don't think you're off the hook if you live
outside the EU. Plans are already underway to bring these
extreme regulations to the U.S. and many other countries.
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Trying to stay positive
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Under the EU directive, a "positive list"
has been created to mandate which dietary supplements will
be allowed for sale. The list does not include about 350 supplement
ingredients, such as boron, a mineral that helps manage symptoms
of menopause.
So if you're a supplement manufacturer in an
EU country, and you produce a supplement that contains boron,
you'll be required to remove it from the supplement by August
2005. But there is another option. You can submit a "technical
dossier" to argue the case that a particular ingredient
(such as boron) should be included on the positive list. Ah,
but there's a catch: The European Commission has made this
process so expensive and time consuming that many manufacturers
simply can't afford the costs involved. As a result, many
safe formulas and nutrients that have been on the ! market
for decades will soon be banned.
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But wait... it gets worse
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The positive list isn't really as positive as
it sounds.
For instance: Vitamin E made
it on the positive list. Sort of. As HSI Panelist Allan Spreen,
M.D., has made clear in several e- Alerts, there are a number
of different vitamin E forms, and the synthetic form should
be avoided for internal use. But according to Euromonitor
International, the ONLY form of vitamin E on the positive
list is the synthetic form.
And then there's selenium. Besides the fact
that selenium has excellent antioxidant properties that have
been shown to help increase insulin efficiency, selenium also
enhances the effect of vitamin E, making it a perfect match
for any vitamin E regimen. But the only two forms of selenium
that made the positive list are - yep - synthetic forms.
Wondering why the positive list emphasizes synthetics?
I'll answer that question with another question: What sort
of company specializes in manufacturing synthetic forms of
natural treatments?
You already saw it coming, didn't you? The answer:
pharmaceutical companies. Large drug companies can easily
produce synthetic ingredients at low cost. So the positive
list will certainly be positive for drug companies, while
many small manufacturers of natural supplements will be forced
out of business.
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Decoding Codex
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The outlook for the future of dietary supplements
in Europe is decidedly gloomy. But if you're a U.S. citizen
you might be wondering how all of this will affect you. In
fact, the 2005 implementation of the EU directive won't directly
affect consumers outside the EU. But the U.S. and the EU are
both members of a much larger club.
The U.S. is one of the 165 member countries
of the Codex Alimentarius Commission - an international food
standards program created by the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). One of the
purposes of the Codex Commission is to "harmonize"
international food trade. And here are a few key elements
of that harmonizing:
* WHO regards all dietary supplements
as "drugs" * The Codex Commission has made it clear
that it wants to limit over-the-counter sales of dietary supplements
while reclassifying others as pharmaceuticals, available only
through a pharmacist
* The U.S. has one vote on
the Codex Commission. The European Union represents 27 votes
on the commission: the 25 votes of its member countries and
2 votes of the 2 EU candidate countries
* Under World Trade! Organization
(WTO) rules, Codex decisions override decisio ns of individual
countries
* Member countries (including
the U.S.) that refuse to "harmonize" with WTO directives
may be subject to restrictive trade sanctions
* The European Union is the
United States' largest trade and investment partner, with
a yearly two-way trade in goods and services that is estimated
to be nearly $600 billion
"Harmony" never sounded so awful.
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Securing the Homeland
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The remarkably harsh restrictions of the EU
directive on Dietary Supplements have met with an enormous
protest from people who correctly see this process as an infringement
on their right to make their own health care choices. This
past February, the High Court in London ruled that a case
challenging the directive should be referred to the European
Court - the only court with the authority to challenge EU
directives. Exactly when that court will hand down a ruling
is not known. What is known is that the decision will have
a profound effect on the availability of dietary supplements
in Europe and beyond.
Meanwhile, back on the other side of the Atlantic,
many congressmen and pro pharmaceutical organizations have
been calling for more restrictive regulations of supplements.
So there's no time to waste in letting our legislators know
that we don't want to see any form of the EU directive taking
effect in the U.S.
A complete list of government e-mail
and postal addresses is available at a web site called Congress.org.
Send a message to your congressmen and
let them know that we want no part of international "harmonizing"
that restricts our access to supplements. And most importantly,
tell them that you don't need any government or international
organizations to "protect" you from your personal
health care choices.
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