Your Dietary Supplements May Become Illegal

[Guest guest]

WHY YOU SHOULD OPPOSE SENATE BILL 722

S722 the " Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 " could critically

limit access to safe supplements by subjecting them to an unnecessary

and costly level of scrutiny. And because of the flair of media,

which misrepresents the FDA's regulatory authority on dietary

supplements, there are many in the Senate that do not know that DSHEA

actually gave the FDA more power and that prior to DSHEA that

supplements were not regulated in the drug category.

 

S722 is presented as a " safety " bill, but it actually threatens to

unravel DSHEA, thereby decreasing consumer choices and increasing

health care costs. There is concern that Senator Durbin will attempt

to slide his bill into the Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Many

Senators and their staff do not know that S722 is not truthful in its

intentions. You must inform your Senators about the dangers of this

bill, especially those who serve on the Appropriations Committee and

the Subcommittee on Agriculture Rural Development and Related

Services.

 

Under Senator Durbin's Bill, the FDA would have enforcement powers

that include expanded authority enabling them to remove from the

market safe and healthful dietary supplements. This would completely

undermine the primary goal of the Dietary Supplement Health and

Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) to restrain the FDA's historical abuse

of discretionary authority over dietary supplements.

 

Please emal your US senator to say you oppose S722.

Find your senator's email address here:

http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm

 

" As your constituent, I urge you to oppose passage of S. 722, the so-

called Dietary Supplement " Safety " Act, recently introduced by

Senator Richard Durbin. I am deeply concerned that rather than

passing this new act which would unnecessarily expand the authority

of the Food and Drug Administration, Congress should instead

investigate and oversee ways in which the Food and Drug

Administration can make full use of its current and more-than-

adequate authority as granted by the Dietary Supplement Health and

Education Act of 1994. "