CODEX Archives

Your very own petition. (Archive in CODEX.)

If this speaks to you, please spread this far and wide...
Be Well,
Misty L. Trepke
http://www.searching-alternatives.com

PETITION - Please SIGN!
http://www.laleva.cc/petizione/english/petitioneng.html

We the undersigned, users of natural health products and food
supplements, ask legislators and administrators in all European
countries and delegates to Codex Alimentarius discussions
world wide to take into account the following:

Considering that international legislation on the subject of food
supplements is currently under discussion at both Codex
Alimentarius and in the European legislative system (Council of
Europe and the European Parliament);

Considering further that in both venues of discussion there are
heavy pressures brought to bear by pharmaceutical interests, to
limit the effectiveness and the availability of natural health
products and food supplements to the detriment of consumer
choice and public health;

Considering that approved, regulated and properly prescribed
pharmaceutical medicines are causing hundreds of thousands
of preventable deaths each year, having become the fourth most
common cause of death in several countries (see statistics and
article by Ron Law from New Zealand);

Considering that vitamin supplements and other natural health
products have a clean bill of health, having been used for
decades by millions of consumers world wide without more than
a handful of confirmed lethal outcomes;

Considering that the clearly visible pressures of pharmaceutical
interests to limit the effectiveness and availability of natural
health products are dictated by motives of monetary profit and
and considerations of market share, not by concern for the
health of consumers;

Considering that true health preservation today is achieved
through the widespread use of natural health products and
supplements (see recent prevention references in Ron Law's
article) and considering that consumers should not be deprived
of the health preserving and health promoting means of their
choice merely by reason of the distraction of legislators or the
greed for profits of the mentioned pharmaceutical interests, let it
be said then that the consumers of natural health products and
food supplements, both in Europe and internationally, demand
that legislators and administrators, in discussions concerning
food supplements, take into account the following:

1. Natural health products and food supplements, in the
absence of specific regulations in place internationally, have
shown to possess an unsurpassed safety record and to be of
great benefit to health as evidenced by scientific studies and by
the personal experience of the undersigned users.

2. It does not therefore make any sense to limit the dosages of
essential nutrients in supplements except where consumption
of such substances has shown actual, health risks;

3. It does not therefore make any sense to limit the availability
of nutrients or other ingredient substances by so called "positive
lists" as contemplated in current international legislative
proposals;

4. It would seriously undermine programs for the promotion of
public health and the prevention of illness as well as the practice
of non conventional methods of therapy, to put limits on the
availability of these products, even if ostensibly "in the name of
consumer protection" for these reasons, we demand that:

ANY EUROPEAN OR INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION BE
CAREFULLY STRUCTURED SO AS TO GUARANTEE THE FREE
ACCESS TO NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCTS AND FOOD
SUPPLEMENTS THAT HAVE PROVEN TO BE SAFE AND ARE IN
DEMAND BY CONSUMERS, OR BE INDEFINITELY SHELVED.

ANY SUCH LEGISLATION SHALL NOT CONTAIN PROVISIONS
LIMITING THE DOSAGES OF NUTRIENTS OR ACTIVE
SUBSTANCES IN SUCH PRODUCTS EXCEPT WHERE
ABSOLUTELY AND CLEARLY NECESSARY TO AVERT
PROVEN, NOT FICTITIOUS OR ASSUMED DANGERS TO THE
HEALTH OF CONSUMERS.

ANY SUCH LEGISLATION SHALL NOT LIMIT THE SCOPE AND
VARIETY OF NUTRITIVE AND OTHERWISE HEALTH
PROMOTING SUBSTANCES BY THE USE OF ANY KIND OF
LISTS, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE, EXCEPT WHERE SUCH
SUBSTANCES CAN BE SHOWN TO HAVE CAUSED DAMAGES
SIMILAR TO THOSE EVIDENT TODAY IN THE PROPERLY
APPROVED AND REGULATED PHARMACEUTICALLY
PRODUCED MEDICINES.

In support of these principles and requesting that legislators and
administrators take into account these demands, we hereby
sign:

http://www.laleva.cc/petition/modulo.php3