Pharmacies Take Control- Small Companies Out

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Misty L. Trepke

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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 Website/Mailing List press-

release ISIS Director m.w.ho

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-

sis.org.uk/vitamins2.php

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