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More "Dirty Medicine"--see references. Archive in CODEX.

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Misty L. Trepke
http://www.searching-alternatives.com

Pharmacies take control - small co.s out

IAHF Webmaster: Breaking News, Whats New, ANH Lawsuit, All
Countries,
What to do

IAHF List: What follows are two press releases announcing the ANH
lawsuit to overturn the EU Food Supplement Directive. While we have
succeeded in generating sufficient donations to get the lawsuit
introduced, its going to take a sustained effort over the next two
years to generate additional donations necessary to sustain it and
to see it through to a successful completion.

We're by no means out of the woods yet! Please forward these press
releases widely, and encourage more people to make donations on a
regular basis to ANH via their secure server at http://www.alliance-
natural-health.org Especially tell American health food stores
they're being lied tby NNFA which is actively keeping them in the
dark on this issue, not explaining the global implications of the
ANH lawsuit. For more info see http://www.iahf.com/anh_lawsuit.html
and see info by the American flag at http://www.alliance-natural-
health.org The American dietary supplement industry is being
controlled from the top-down by pharma interests which are actively
steering the industry to the cliff via IADSA and Dennin who is about
as much "retired" from Pfizer as Cheney is from Halliburton.

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

General Enquiries sam@i-sis.org.uk [] Website/Mailing List press-
release@i-sis.org.uk [] ISIS Director m.w.ho@i-sis.org.uk
UNSUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS ARE AT THE FOOT OF THIS MESSAGE

First 300 key vitamins and minerals axed, now 5 000 supplements
banned by "insane" EU Directive. Sam Burcher reports on the right to
freedom for the £1.6 billion alternative health industry.

The Alliance of Natural Health (ANH) is set to legally challenge the
contentious EU Directive on Food Supplements (FSD). The FSD passed
into European law in July 2002 and effectively brings about a ban on
300 nutrients included in 5,000 health products, most of which are
in dietary supplements closest to food forms.

In July this year, the House of Commons Standing Committee for FSD
Regulations met and voted the Food Supplement Directive through into
English, Scottish and Welsh law. Dr Robert Verkerk, executive
director of London-based ANH hopes a successful challenge would
result in the FSD being overturned by all EU states.

The ANH represent the interests of a number of organisations
including the British Association of Complimentary Medicine and the
British Society for Allergy Environmental and Nutritional Medicine
as well as a number of independent manufactures, suppliers and
distributors of vitamins and minerals. Together they suggest the
existing Directive be replaced with a revised FSD that allows for
high quality, effective supplements across the whole of Europe. This
would effectively harmonise to good standards, not bad ones.

Three other Directives concerning Herbal Medicine, Novel Foods and
EU Medicines are under consideration, but have not yet been ratified
into UK law. The appropriation of traditional products is likely to
increase with food supplements, food substances and food/beverages
(health drinks and fruit juices) suppressed by EU Directives
repackaged as "Nutraceuticals" and sold by pharmaceutical companies.
(See box 1)

Two Labour MPs have voiced concerns about the way the Regulations
were voted through by the Standing Committee. Kate Hoey MP
(Vauxhall) revealed what happened: "I was a member of this committee
until I said, very honestly, that I would vote against the
regulations." She was, together with five other
MPs, "unceremoniously removed" from the committee the night before
the vote took place and replaced with MPs who voted in favour of the
FSD.

According to Kate Hoey, this gives a clear message that the
government cares more for the pharmaceutical industry that it does
about ordinary people. Her views are shared by Jeremy Corbyn MP
(Islington), he said: "The FSD is a product of ruthless lobbying
tactics by the pharmaceutical industry which is not keen on the
diversity of supply of vitamin supplements available in health food
shops." He backs the ANH move to legally challenge the Directive.

Legal challenges are seldom made to the 40 000 EU Directives
implemented since the UK joined the Common Market in 1972,
ostensibly to share in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). But
Conservative MP Daniel Hannan complained to the Daily Telegraph last
September 3, that, "whenever you see an apparently insane Brussels
Directive, someone, somewhere stands to gain." And in his view, the
Directives affecting natural remedies resulted because of lobbying
by the large pharmaceutical companies. (See box 2)

MEP, Nigel Farrage said that on one occasion, MEPs were required to
vote on Directives 450 times in one 80-minute session. He freely
admitted that it was a farce and he voted as he was told.

To simply question the validity of food supplementation is no longer
enough when it is generally acknowledged that modern food production
methods and deterioration of soil due to intensive farming are
affecting vitamins and mineral content in food. For example, levels
of the mineral selenium (Se) declined 50% between 1974-1991 and the
UK population selenium levels are lower than many other European
countries. Scientific studies show selenium is an essential nutrient
associated with the function of major metabolic pathways, and taken
up rapidly by the body when given as a dietary supplement. Also well
established is the fact that dietary selenium is important for a
healthy immune response, and the effects of its deficiency can
include decreased T-cell counts and impaired lymphocyte
proliferation. Fourteen forms of selenium, including the organic
forms, selenium yeast and selenomethionine are forbidden on `The
Positive List'

In fact vulnerable groups such as the elderly, pregnant and those
coping with chronic diseases such as arthritis can all benefit from
food supplements. But, in essence, the FSD is another blow to the
individual's freedom to choose how to look after their health, be it
in conjunction with a good diet, or simply as a preventative against
developing a chronic disease. Increasing visits to GPs to obtain the
correct supplements, as the Directive would have us do will not suit
the overburdened Health Service at all, but it might just serve the
big corporations.
Box 1
Some of the 300 vitamins and mineral excluded from the FSD positive
list
Substance
Benefit
Boron (All forms)
Required for absorption of calcium
Vitamin E (naturally occurring tocopherols and toctotrienols)
Antioxidants, which protect against damage by free radicals,
associated with cancer and other degenerative diseases.
Calcium (23 food forms)
For bones, teeth and cell function
Chromium (17 forms)
For balancing blood sugar levels, widely used by diabetics
Magnesium (30 forms)
Healthy bones and teeth
Potassium (21 forms)
Maintains blood pressure and heart beat rhythm
Silica (All forms)
Works in conjunction with boron, calcium, and other minerals to
support bones, arteries, connective tissue, hair, skin and nails
Selenium (14 forms)
Antioxidant, important for heart function. Contributes to healthy
immune response.

The dietary supplement Glucosamine, a combination of
minerals,vitamins and fatty acids bought by millions of arthritis
suffers to ease their painful symptoms has been banned as a food
supplement by the Medicines Agency in Denmark and Sweden. Instead it
is has been allowed on to the shelves as an over the counter
medicine produced by Recip Glucosine and Pharma Nord - two
pharmaceutical companies.

Box 2
The Food Supplements Directive covers two fundamental areas:
1. The types of vitamins and minerals that may be legally sold from
mid-2005.
2. The maximum doses at which they may be supplied from 2006.

The EU Commission has designated a list of permissible nutrients
called 'The Positive List.' Specialist vitamin manufactures have
expressed concern that their products containing organic
ingredients, excluded from the 'List', are being compromised by
synthetic or inorganic equivalents that are on the 'List.' All
attempts to include a number of organic vitamins and minerals have
been refused. Not only that, but to register their high quality
products for sale could cost up to £250,00 per nutrient plus
evidence of their safety. All nutrients must be paid for and
registered by August 2005, putting small, large and medium suppliers
of food supplements under intense pressure.

Maximum doses or Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamins and
minerals will be negotiated over the next 18 months. Levels are to
be set by the EU Scientific Committee to Food (SCF), who are not
accountable to any government or parliament and have banned 300
nutrients so far (See box 1). Two commonly occurring vitamins, which
have a wealth of scientific study to support their validity, are
vitamin C and vitamin B6. The ANH fear RDA doses will be rendered so
low that consumers will have to buy much more of the product to
receive their current nutritional dose or that they might disappear
from the shelves altogether.

Sources:

Legal Bid Challenges EU Food Directive. Health Matters vol 5 No.6
July/August 2003.
Wright O. Johnston C. Bennett R. Clampdown on Alternative Medicines.
The Times. 20th September 2003.
Watts. M. Right to Buy Essential Supplements. The Argus. July 19th
2003
Brown KM. Pickard K. Nicol F. Beckett G.J. Duthie G.G. Arthur J.R.
Effects of organic and inorganic selenium supplementation on
selenoenzyme activity in blood lymphocytes, granulocytes, platelets
and erythrocytes. The Rowett Research Institute Clinical Science 98,
593-599. 2000
Burcher S. Hands off Vitamins and Herbs. Science in Society Issue
17.
p19-20 Winter 2003. © Institute of Science in Society
What's the Future? Linking Bioscience with Nature. © BioCare 2003
Food Supplements Directive 2003. Alliance for Natural Health
www.alliance-natural-health.org

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-
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