The Great Australian Supplements Round-up

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The Great Australian Supplements Round-up

(TGA Skeletons - WHO Privatised the Regulator?)

 

 

by Eve Hillary

 

Part 1

 

 

April 29th, 2003 was a cool autumn day in Australia. To the average Aussie it

seemed a day like any other. Most tuned into the 6 o'clock news, aware that

history was being made in other countries with SARS and the U.S. invasion of

Iraq. But few were aware that something of historical importance was unfolding

in the " Lucky Country " .

 

To seasoned observers who saw it coming it was nothing short of breathtaking

when the near mortal blow to health freedom was finally struck, and for a while,

dissenting voices were stunned into silence. Many pundits expected other

countries to be the more likely targets but like any interesting social

experiment, there was an elegant logic behind the choice. Australians were

historically spared the great upheavals of the twentieth century. They seemed

more trusting, less suspicious of political and corporate agendas than their

counterparts in the northern hemisphere or in Europe, where entire populations

still recall the spin-doctoring of totalitarian governments under the guise of

this or that benefit for the public good.

 

The largest, quickest and most comprehensive recall of health care products in

world history occurred in Australia following an announcement on Monday April

29th by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) that they had served

Pan Pharmaceuticals with an order to suspend its operations for a six-month

period. Pan supplied 75% of Australia's complementary healthcare products, such

as nutritional supplements in the form of vitamins, minerals, omega oils, and

herbal products. Pan also supplied a range of over-the-counter and other drugs,

which were sold under various brand names by other companies.

 

Jim Selim, the founder and CEO of Pan, is an Egyptian-born pharmacist who, by

all accounts, has a passionate belief in natural products and expert knowledge

of herbs and supplements. Selim had single-handedly built up his company and,

within 20 years, was the largest supplier of complementary health products in

Australia. His astonishing success catapulted him onto the world stage as the

fourth largest manufacturer of natural health products. Along with this

distinction came some unwanted attention from the multi-national pharmaceutical

industry, which had been lobbying against natural health supplements and

products because of the significant erosion they made into drug company profits.

 

Studies show that 60% of consumers have spent some of their health dollars on

supplements and natural remedies. Many use natural products to maintain good

health or facilitate recovery from various conditions after orthodox medicine

has failed, as it often does in the case of chronic illness. Doctors trained in

nutritional medicine, as well as qualified naturopaths, use supplements

therapeutically as an adjunct to orthodox treatments or as holistic treatments.

The science behind natural medicine has been widely denied by orthodox medicine

and is largely kept out of the medical student's curricula. However, nutrients

have been used and studied for thousands of years and there is a large body of

valid scientific evidence that shows therapeutic nutrients are highly effective

in treating a wide range of conditions. Most health consumers take supplements

because they perceive a health benefit and are not even aware that there is

solid science behind nutritional therapies. This research is

little mentioned in the media, which nearly always portrays nutritional

therapies as being solely practiced by unqualified quacks.

 

Media disinformation is issued directly from pharmaceutical company public

relations departments on a daily basis through journalists and

industry-sponsored doctors embedded in the media and other key positions. (8)

This has been occurring for over 40 years and is well documented in the chemical

industry archives, documents released through litigation. (7)

 

Much of the public confusion on the issue results from drug industry

misinformation, which frequently refers to nutrient supplements as medicines or

even drugs. Nutrients are not drugs. Humans require dozens of essential

nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and antioxidants to stay alive and

healthy. The body knows how to use these and eliminates the excess. The need for

supplements has increased recently, after it has been shown that plant-based

foods are now grown on barren and demineralised soils, which do not supply

plants with optimum nutrients. Humans then eat nutritionally deficient plants.

Orthodox doctors claim the standard western diet contains all we need and

additional supplements are 'flushed down the toilet'. This view appears to be

myopic or at least poorly informed, given that 75% of all Australian deaths are

a result of lifestyle factors. This includes poor diet and the resulting

nutritional deficiencies.

 

On the other hand, drugs are mostly synthetic chemicals. There are many drugs

that are life-saving and beneficial when prescribed responsibly. But the massive

proliferation of drugs has given rise to a statistic, which the multi-national

pharmaceutical industry attempts to hide. Dangerous or inappropriate

pharmaceutical drug treatments and medical interventions have now become the

third leading cause of death.

 

The " problem " for the pharmaceutical industry is twofold. Healthy people avoid

consuming pharmaceuticals. Illness generates profits to drug companies, mainly

through their exclusive sale of patented drugs. Wellness and preventative

medicine has been less profitable for the multinational drug industry because

smaller companies like Pan and many other vitamin companies formulate and sell

most of the world's nutritional and vitamin products. Nutrients and herbs are

naturally occurring substances and therefore cannot be patented unless their

structure is changed through genetic engineering or chemical processes.

Pharmaceutical industry PR departments and industry-funded scientists have been

behind unnecessary herb and vitamin scares, citing lack of uniformity or actual

danger to persons who take supplements. Subsequently some natural products have

been withdrawn from sale while massive drug and biotech multi-nationals work

behind the scenes chemically to alter and patent natural

substances as pharmaceuticals. In Australia alone the increasing popularity of

natural products has deprived the global pharmaceutical market of 2 billion

dollars annually. This has brought in its wake an accelerating clampdown on

complementary medicine (using natural products). The drug industry is worth

trillions of dollars worldwide and it has some powerful friends.

 

In January 2003, the TGA moved to recall Travacalm, Pan's over-the-counter

travel sickness tablet when it was tested and found to be defective. After the

January recall, Pan discovered a problem with one of its analysts whom the

company claimed was responsible for the lapse in quality control over the

defective product. The company dismissed the analyst, and set out to correct the

problem with its recalled product, while continuing to manufacture its other

unaffected product lines. So far the protocol followed normal procedure for a

recall, a commonplace occurrence even in the multi-national pharmaceutical

industry.

 

However, neither Jim Selim nor Pan's board members anticipated the special

attention they were about to receive from the TGA. The company had become used

to the regular TGA inspections in the previous few years and neither Pan nor the

TGA found any serious cause for concern. In fact, Pan's vitamin and herb factory

had been inspected more often and more rigorously than the Australian-based

operations of multi-national pharmaceutical drug companies. However, after

January the TGA conducted a number of audit raids on Pan which foreshadowed

trouble. In April, the TGA shut down Pan's entire operation and slapped a class

1 recall over 1369 Pan products which were unrelated to Travacalm. This involved

mostly vitamins, minerals and herbal products, which the company supplied to

over 75% of the complementary healthcare market.

 

The regulator cited serious concerns as to the quality, safety or effectiveness

of these natural remedies. Class 1 recalls are only issued when it has been

shown that the product is likely to cause serious, irreversible health damage or

death. By its extreme action of issuing a class 1 recall, the TGA indicated to

the general public that the calcium tablet or vitamin C or Echinacea or

chamomile or any other of the 1369 natural products they had been taking without

any problems, are now expected to cause death or irreversible health damage.

Many consumers questioned this logic when they had experienced no adverse health

effects from the supplements they had already taken. Those whose suspicions were

aroused were even more surprised that the TGA had not given specific information

about the nature of the problem with the products. Then Mayne Health, a large

healthcare company whom Pan supplied with products, stated that their company

had regularly conducted their own rigorous testing of

Pan's products and had not found any cause for concern. The TGA offered no

explanation as to why an independent distributor of Pan's products could find no

problem on testing when the regulator claimed there was a life-threatening

problem.

 

During the week of the shock announcement, the TGA left its responsibilities as

a provider of accurate and useful public information to the daily tabloids, who

rushed to fill the information vacuum with headlines such as; Honeymoon Ruined,

Babies in Danger, It's a Sick Business, Bad Medicine. By the end of the week,

the TGA had still not explained the specific problem and which of the vitamin

company's products were affected and in what way. Instead they stood by as the

press had a field day whipping up the story while the more vulnerable consumers

of health care products, elderly people and young mothers, panicked and imagined

all types of horrific scenarios.

 

The interim week saw a run on 5000 health food stores which reported an influx

of panicked customers demanding refunds for all manner of products, even those

they'd fully consumed, and those that were out of date. Some demanded money for

taxi fares. The TGA remained tight-lipped about the offending substance that had

allegedly rendered all these supplements life threatening overnight. Instead,

the regulator issued numerous public announcements stating that; " drugs and

pharmaceuticals are perfectly safe and persons should keep on taking them " . The

NSW State Premier chimed in with his own message to that effect.

 

By the end of the week the dailies continued running weekend feature stories

about the grave dangers of taking vitamins. The conundrum sent freelance and

independent researchers scurrying to their computers to research product

recalls. A short search of the FDA drug recall list and medico-legal websites,

list thousands of recalls, adverse events and warnings pertaining to drug and

chemical products manufactured by multi-national drug and chemical companies.

Many of the listed products are known to be either dangerous or toxic to humans

and even carcinogenic. Multi-national drug company recalls are rarely given much

press, and have never been given as much negative media attention as Pan had

received.

 

Even more incredibly, no large multi-national company has ever been shut down by

a government regulator after one of its products has been recalled, even if

deaths have occurred as a result of using the drug or chemical. This discovery

was guaranteed to make any independent journalist even more curious about the

TGA's action over Pan.

 

In the second week, Pan stocks plummeted and other companies scrambled to fill

the manufacturing gap while their share prices surfed a rising wave. The

mainstream media had settled into the role of investigators and de-facto TGA

spokespersons, breathlessly informing the public of the " facts " behind the

" vitamin scandal " . " Snake Oil Jim Quits…. " screamed the tabloids, while the

'prestigious' Sydney Morning Herald ran the story; " Tangled Tale of Lucky Jim " ,

a vicious little exposé of Selim's daughter and her 1997 battle with drugs.

 

Any parent would consider it a tragedy to watch their child suffer from the

disease of addiction, let alone have it published in the newspapers. The

journalists Mercer and Stevenson used a psychologist's report to speculate on

Jim Selim's shortcomings as a parent. Hardly a need-to-know issue for the

Australian public, who had still not been informed of the results of the

regulator's testing of the 1369 urgently recalled Pan products. Not

surprisingly, Jim Selim voluntarily resigned as CEO from his own company, amidst

one of the most vicious tabloid vilification campaigns in the history of the

Australian press.

 

While grannies thought they had been poisoned, Australia's investigative

journalists wrote about interviews with disgruntled employees who thought they

should have had longer breaks and the production should have been slower at the

vitamin factory. The dailies stated opinion as gospel while offering no real

facts from the TGA. While the thinking public waited for the facts, young

mothers still thought they had poisoned their babies. The tabloids made fun of

Jim Selim and columnists wrote ditties about vitamins and herbs being " eye of

newt " .

 

Embedded industry-sponsored TV journalists worked feverishly behind the scenes

to spin horror exposés about herbs and vitamins that were screened within a week

of the breaking news. And still no one had suffered any adverse effects from

having taken vitamins. Embedded 'experts' emerged from the closet with their

editorials, published under the guise of objective articles. Still the TGA

remained silent about the exact reason why the natural products were classed as

being capable of causing death. Pundits assumed TGA was checking all recalled

products, just as they had checked Travacalm, and would make public the exact

nature of the problem.

 

By the end of the week, Jim Selim, once a man with a zest for life, had been

forced to leave his home after journalists crawled all over his garden by day

and night. They interviewed his neighbours, one of whom complained that the

Selim family had visitors who banged the gate when they left. The other

complaint was about the noise when the family swam in their pool. The facts

gleaned by the reader from this in-depth investigative journalism were that the

Selims had friends and they indulged in occasional exercise. By week's end the

Selim family retreated to parts unknown, amidst Jim's friend's concerns that " he

is in a very bad way. "

 

While the media was beating itself to death with the vitamin factory story, a

little known posting appeared in an obscure place on the TGA website. The

regulator is also in charge of being a public watchdog with respect to food,

chemicals and consumer items. On the same day the TGA recalled the Pan products,

they also issued another recall. A smallgoods company packaged a large quantity

of ham, which was found to be contaminated with bacteria known to cause serious

food poisoning, which sometimes results in death. The media never mentioned

this, and there were no public press releases issued by the TGA.

 

At the end of the second week following the world's largest recall, the TGA had

still released no results of their product testing to Australian consumers or

the thousands of businesses that relied on accurate information. But many of the

5000 or so Australian health food store proprietors were about to start the

cascade into insolvency. To hasten the process, they were forced by the consumer

watchdog ACCC to issue consumer refunds when they had no guarantee of

reimbursement by the now ailing manufacturer. Health food shops were left

saddled with the difference between the wholesale and retail price, which they

had to find out of their own pockets. With their backs to the wall, they still

had precious little by way of an explanation. However, TGA did issue clear

instructions to clear shelves of recalled product. Now, virtually overnight,

natural products had disappeared, leaving many shops bare.

 

The largest mountain of vitamins, minerals, oils and herbs in the world was

hurriedly designated for destruction by the Australian Government in a special

location and using a special process usually reserved for toxic waste. The

evidence is, of course, destined for destruction. The TGA has still not informed

the public as to why their natural products were classified as deadly, when no

one had previously suffered adverse effects. The regulator has released no test

results. It is not known if tests were ever conducted. When the mountain of

vitamins finally rests in their mass grave, incinerated and entombed as the

remains of what the Australian government regards as toxic waste, we will never

know. And the epitaph on the headstone could well read; " Here Lies Health

Freedom " .

 

 

Among the mystery and intrigue surrounding this historical event, one thing

appears to be certain. Had any test shown a lethal toxicity supporting a class 1

recall, the TGA would have told us by now.

 

Unlike some issues that rest in peace, the ghost of this recall will haunt the

government for years to come. The story of the recall started years ago in a

bustling European city. But first, a little more about the regulator.

 

 

Part 2

 

 

 

TGA " Protecting the Health and Safety of All Australians "

 

Like its US FDA counterpart, the Australian TGA states that it " is obligated to

take action where there is concern in relation to the quality, safety and

effectiveness of medicines. " The regulator also oversees the safety of food and

chemical products as well as consumer items and medicines. The TGA states its

role is to " …protect the health and safety of all Australians. " However, an

audit of the regulator's performance reveals an astonishing picture.

 

TGA Regulating Chemicals

In 1999 a woman lodged a complaint with the TGA about a chemical product that

she had used, as directed on the label. Using this product had caused her to be

violently ill and she required hospital treatment. She was pregnant at the time

of the toxic exposure. Serious health effects became apparent as a result of the

poisoning, affecting both the woman and her child for many years. Both were

subsequently diagnosed with chemical poisoning by two Australian doctors and one

U.S. specialist physician. She reported this to the then director of the

Chemicals and Non-prescription Medicines Branch of the TGA, Mr. Graham Peachey.

 

The director replied to her complaint, claiming that all chemicals are

rigorously tested and regulated by Australian government departments. He

maintained that her claim that this chemical product had caused serious illness

was a result of " a strong interaction with personal belief factors " . By this, he

dismissed her complaint, alleging that she was imagining the (medically

diagnosed) serious effects the chemical exposure had on herself and her child.

 

The woman wrote back enquiring as to what kind of testing is done by the

regulators on toxic chemicals that are manufactured by large multi-national

companies, that stream directly onto the Australian market. She received no

reply. She later found out that no independent testing of any kind is done on

these products before they reach the consumer.

 

Meanwhile she encountered others who'd had similar experiences with the same

chemical and other toxic consumer products. She discovered that they too had

written letters of complaint to the TGA, and they had received the same

response. She joined a support group for chemically injured persons, and became

the group's newsletter editor. Soon she was inundated with letters from persons

who related the identical or similar responses from the TGA after they had

lodged complaints to the regulator about harmful effects from toxic chemicals in

consumer products. Intrigued, she investigated these allegations and found that

the TGA had dismissed all of them. None of these dozens (and possibly thousands)

of complaints alleging serious and sometimes life threatening effects on

consumers by various chemical products were ever investigated by the TGA.

 

The multi-national chemical manufacturers were never held accountable and the

TGA never co-operated with calls to start an adverse events register for

chemical products despite years of lobbying by individuals, advocates and

support groups.

 

TGA Regulating Drugs

Like its U.S. FDA counterpart, the TGA regulates and approves drugs. Ten years

ago in 1994 there were 157.5 million prescriptions issued annually. That figure

has now increased exponentially as hundreds of new drugs have come on line. It

would be reasonable to assume that a large part of the huge modern TGA building

in Canberra would be devoted to ensuring public safety through monitoring of

potent pharmaceutical drugs. However more oversight committees and manpower are

devoted to herbs and vitamins. Why? A quick overview of just one drug regulating

example will yield some disturbing answers and raise even more questions.

 

In the mid 1980's GlaxoSmithKline marketed buproprion as an antidepressant,

released under the brand name of Wellbutrin and later Zyban. In 1986 bupropion

was briefly withdrawn due to the high rate of convulsions associated with its

use, and later inexplicably returned to the marketplace. By 2002 bupropion was

recognised as the third most common cause of drug related seizures with cocaine

found to be the number one cause (2). Buproprion is often placed in the same

category as Prozac type drugs, but its exact mode of action remains unclear

after many years of study.

 

Since 1998, statistics indicated some serious adverse effects were occurring

among patients taking the drug. Complaints were flowing in to Health Canada, to

the UK regulator and to the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline. The company had

received 1127 adverse reports about the drug from Canada alone between May 1998

and 28th May 2001. This included 19 deaths. Meanwhile the Medicines Control

Agency, UK's version of the FDA/TGA, reported 3,457 adverse reaction reports to

the drug, including 18 deaths. Since then there have been 7,500 adverse

reactions and 58 deaths in the UK up to April 2002.

 

In 2000, GlaxoSmithKline lodged an application with the TGA to approve

bupropion, to be marketed in its new guise, not as an antidepressant, but as an

anti-smoking drug, Zyban. By then the drug had collected a number of skeletons

in its closet. The drug had enjoyed another life as a weight-loss pill, and was

written up in an obesity journal as being a fat-buster, since loss of appetite

had been determined in 3% of the side effects reported while in use as an

antidepressant.

 

The 'research', however, was far from ethical, as it was commissioned and paid

for by the drug's manufacturer. (3,4) Shortly after the pharmaceutical giant

lodged its drug application to the TGA in Canberra, the regulator commenced its

stringent " pre-market evaluation " of bupropion, now known as Zyban. The

registration process involved an in-depth assessment of the drug, its efficacy,

and safety. The regulator was required to review the adverse effects, including

convulsions and death associated with the drug's use overseas, figures that were

by then readily available. While the TGA was still busy " protecting the health

and safety of all Australians " with its rigorous safety assessment of the drug,

the global death toll continued to escalate. By mid-2002, the manufacturer had

already received reports of 245 deaths associated with the use of this drug. (5)

 

After the TGA experts finished their stringent review of bupropion (Zyban), the

drug enjoyed the approval of the Australian regulator. It was introduced into

Australia in late 2000, and extensively promoted to doctors as an anti-smoking

drug (1).

 

The Australian Zyban experience proved to be tragically identical to the

reported overseas experience. Not long after TGA approved its use in Australia,

serious reports of adverse reactions started to pour into the TGA's adverse drug

reactions advisory committee, ADRAC. Since Zyban's approval, 1237 reports of

adverse reactions linked to Zyban have been reported to the TGA, including: 74

episodes of convulsions/twitching, psychiatric effects such as depression and

anxiety, serious skin rashes, including a serum sickness-type syndrome,

impotence, chest pain. 18 Australians died. (1)

 

When complaints came into the adverse drug advisory committee about Pan's

Travacalm after persons experienced sedative and other side effects from the

product, the TGA perhaps understandably applied a class 1 recall, even though

there were no irreversible effects or deaths. (Class 2 recall is in case of

adverse events that are reversible or mild, and class 3 recalls are reserved

when no serious adverse events are expected to occur). Oddly, the vitamins

included in this recent haul attracted a Class 1 recall when no effects at all

had been reported.

 

However, despite the high numbers of adverse events and deaths, the TGA has no

serious concerns about the safety of Zyban. To protect the health and safety of

all Australians, the regulator will review " each report with a fatal outcome "

through ADRAC, which meets every six to seven weeks and " is keeping the drug's

safety under close review. " The committee's experts are not certain whether the

deaths and serious side effects are caused by the drug or are " coincidental. "

(1)

 

While the TGA is still " reviewing " and " monitoring " the ever-increasing death

toll linked to an apparently dangerous drug, it has acted immediately to affect

a class 1 recall of a calcium supplement, which it recalled " due to serious

concerns " . Calcium is a naturally occurring mineral that is required for good

health on a daily basis, and no one has ever died from it. This was closely

followed by a class 1 recall of 1369 other natural supplements.

 

The regulator has no plans to withdraw Zyban from the Australian market. It is

not the only dangerous drug widely prescribed and approved by the TGA. 10,000

fatal events occur annually in Australia, attributed to medical procedures and

drug associated deaths. Most of these deaths could have been avoided if the

regulator recalled the drugs that caused deaths and left the vitamins and

nutrients essential to life available to the public.

 

The disturbing questions raised by this paradox must now be answered.

 

 

 

 

Part 3

 

 

 

WHO owns the TGA?

Each year delegates gather in a European city to convene the Codex Alimentarius

Commission. The first commission was convened in 1963 as a joint effort between

the UN and the WHO (World Health Organization). Since that time the Codex

delegates have overwhelmingly represented large multi-national pharmaceutical

companies and government regulating authorities, including the FDA and TGA. The

delegates are determining an eight-step guideline that is already being

implemented in many countries of the world. The Codex guidelines are intended to

prevent the further sale of supplements and herbs and to regulate them as drugs

to be manufactured solely by drug companies. In accordance with the Codex

guidelines, supplements are being slowly withdrawn from the public domain.

 

There are no representatives of small vitamin manufacturers and retailers at

Codex meetings and health supplement consumers are not represented, as they are

not eligible to attend. There is no press allowed during these meetings. Each

successive meeting at the Codex commission advances the coming agenda to set

worldwide guidelines on vitamins, supplements and herbs. The full restriction of

supplements and herbs is enacted as an eight-step process and begins with

seemingly innocent changes that the regulator adopts at first. Finally each

country is brought closer to full harmonisation when the consumer can no longer

access supplements or herbs.

 

The guidelines include the setting of recommended daily intake (RDI) levels of

supplements, which are set so low as to make therapeutic doses or prophylactic

doses of supplements impossible and technically illegal. Iceland, Sweden, Norway

and Denmark have already harmonised to step 5. Once harmonised, the Codex

'recommendation' becomes enshrined in that country's statutes and laws are

strictly observed. One Scandinavian vitamin supplier was chased by the federal

police for supplying vitamin C tablets that exceeded 200 mg. The amount of

vitamin C contained in three oranges had made this man a criminal.

 

Canada has recently harmonised with Codex, with its regulator withdrawing nearly

half of the stocks in health food stores overnight. Possession of one popular

supplement, DHEA, in Canada now attracts the same penalties as crack cocaine.

The Canadian regulator is empowered to classify any substance as a drug and it

makes no difference if that substance is a food that has been consumed for

thousands of years and is perfectly safe. That product can be recalled or

removed from the market.

 

As Codex continues its march, herbs are increasingly classed as drugs with

restricted access. Germany has already complied fully by regulating all

supplements and herbs as drugs. In a country with an age-old tradition of

natural medicine, no one can freely access these products now. This is designed

to assist drug companies in their technology of PharmaPrinting, which produces

versions of herbs that will be standardised and patented by drug companies and

approved by government regulators as drugs. In a press release six years ago,

the WHO has announced its collaboration with PharmaPrint, a California based

Biotech Company, which has already started to standardise useful herbs such as

Gingko, St. John's Wart, Valerian and many others. (9)

 

Once patented, useful herbs will then be banned and removed from the public

domain, even for garden use. There has already been a federal police raid

carried out on a couple in northern New South Wales who planted a Chinese herb

in their garden to use as tea. (10)

 

For the time being, all herbs and supplements have now been allocated DIN (drug

identification numbers), which many regulators have now adopted and implemented

in their respective countries as they gradually harmonise with the Codex

recommendations. Australian TGA officials have distributed much of this DIN

software to other countries. The TGA is in the process of pressuring New Zealand

to adopt similar restrictive standards currently in use in Australia. Graham

Peachey, the one-time director of the chemicals and non-prescription medicines

branch of the TGA, has taken over the task of persuading NZ to harmonise to the

same level as Australia. That includes the prohibition of any therapeutic claim

made with respect to nutritional supplements, even if there exist medical

studies to support those claims. So far, NZ has resisted moves in that

direction, placing value on health freedom for its citizens. However, failure to

implement these Codex standards will result in sanctions against

governments by the WTO.

 

There is a fortune to be made by multinational drug companies solely controlling

the manufacture and sale of all life-sustaining natural products. Many doctors

and health freedom advocates are deeply disturbed by these events. Dr. Matthias

Rath, a medical specialist in nutritional medicine, demonstrated that

nutritional supplements reversed many conditions, including heart disease. He

states. " If the Codex Commission is allowed to obstruct the eradication of heart

disease by restricting access to nutritional supplements, more than 12 million

people world-wide will continue to die every year from premature heart attacks

and strokes. Within the next generation alone, this would result in over 300

million premature deaths, more than in all the wars of mankind together. "

 

Codex has been a well-kept secret for many years. However, word has spread

lately and thousands of health-conscious and informed people are protesting

against the disappearance of health freedom. People are demanding their right to

stay healthy in open demonstrations around the world. For countries that have

already harmonised, it is too late to reverse this blow to health freedom in the

near future. However, greater awareness is gathering strength globally and those

with agendas are running out of time to implement their total control over God's

garden and over the citizens of those countries that haven't yet fully

harmonised.

 

Back to Pan

It seems an extraordinary stroke of luck for the TGA that half the supplement

stocks have been swept away into a toxic waste incinerator while the media

manufactures public consent for the regulator to clamp down on the vitamin

industry with tighter controls. " Clean up the industry " the public demands.

" Standardise herbs " . " Tighten up the regulations " , demand those who know nothing

of the global agenda, and the same cry is heard from those who know the plan.

Many senior TGA officials have deep ties to WHO. News of Pan travels fast. It

was posted in Geneva the day after it was announced to Australians.

 

We would be well advised to watch the developments from now on. And to speak up

while we still can. We are nearing midnight, just a few short steps away from

" harmonising " with the needs of a very powerful cadre of individuals. It was

Benito Mussolini who said, " Fascism should more appropriately be called

corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. "

 

In the lucky country, people still believe Benito lived a long time ago in a

land far away.

 

The author asserts copyright, but this article may be distributed for

non-commercial purposes. For any other purpose please contact the author at;

evehillary

 

About Eve Hillary

Eve Hillary is based in Sydney. She is a medical writer and researcher into

issues pertaining to the health care industry and environmental health. She

specializes in documenting the human impact of the politics of multinational

medical and biotech corporations, covering issues such as emerging epidemics,

gene pollution, chemical pollution, government regulators and the role of the

media.

 

She is the author of Children of a Toxic Harvest: An Environmental

Autobiography, and numerous articles relating to environmental health issues.

Her most recent book is Health Betrayal; Staying away from the sickness

industry. She is also a public speaker.

 

Eve has spent 25 years in healthcare where she has observed the medical industry

at first hand from the inside.

 

Knowledge is potential power, and Eve's primary objective is to return this

power to the individuals whose lives depend on it. She uncompromisingly believes

that knowing the facts about health care is a right that belongs to the public.

 

 

References and Sources

 

(1) TGA website www.health.gov.au/tga/docs/html/zyban

(2) Journal of Emergency Medicine 2002 April; 22(3):235-9J

(3) Obes Res 2002 Jul:10(7):633-641)

(4) Health Policy Journal Health Affairs. 9/7/2002

(5) CSM: Zyban safety update, 11 April 2002

(6) Legal Consumer Guide www.legalconsumerguide.com

(7) www.chemicalindustryarchives.org

(8) Eve Hillary, Health Betrayal, Synergy Books, 2003

(9) www.tetrahedron.org/articles/codex

(10) Beware - Therapeutic Goods Act - Proposed changes. By Susan Drew Rasmussen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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