Guest guest Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 From Citizens for Health—Health Action Center http://www.citizens.org http://www.healthactioncenter.org Urge the U.S. Codex Delegation to protect DSHEA Let’s write to Dr. Barbara Schneeman at the FDA now! Dr. Schneeman is one of our key U.S. representatives to Codex. Let’s ask her to please work diligently to ensure that our nation's hard-won health freedoms, a good example of which is the Dietary Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), are not only protected here at home but inform every meeting and decision at Codex. Codex Alimentarius (Latin for " Food Code " ) was originally created as the United Nation’s attempt to establish international guidelines to " help governments consider the formulation and adoption of similar international standards of [...] purity for all foods " To many, this sounds like a good idea. Agreement on trade, safety and purity would seem beneficial for the world in so many ways, right? Wrong! Not in the ways Codex is being constructed now. If accepted as an international standard by the U.S. Codex Delegation and implemented in the U.S. (called harmonization), our future access to innovative and health-enhancing dietary supplements could, in time, be dramatically restricted. Let’s let Dr. Schneeman know that we are confident that she, Dr. Scarbrough, and the entire U.S. Delegation won't let us down at the Codex conference tables in Rome. The Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “Food Code”) Commission would do well to remember that its core mission is food purity. FAO’s mandate, hence Codex’s mandate, is not to “dumb down” the potency—hence the health-optimizing benefits—of nutritional supplements throughout the world, but that is unfortunately where the Commission is still headed right now in certain respects. Given the strong safety record of nutritional supplements, derived from a historically nutrient-dense world diet that has been 10,000 years in the making, upper safe levels should be implemented and regarded the same way as are the U.S. RDAs—as recommendations for consumers and as required information to be listed by manufacturers but not as mandated potency limits signed off by national governments and trade barriers that would block international consumer access to health-optimizing levels of vitamin and mineral compounds. The overriding standards should be these: purity and truthfulness in labeling along the lines of USP/NF, NSF and international GMP standards. Products should state what they contain, contain what they state, the natural or synthetic sources from where they are derived and whether these sources are believed to be genetically engineered (GE or GMO) sources or not. Consumers have the right, and therefore the responsibility, for what they purchase. National governments and Codex should focus or re-focus its efforts on truthful labeling and product purity. These issues are certain to be actively debated in Rome. Although vitamins and minerals have been identified as food supplements in the Codex draft guidelines, many of the delegations represented at Codex currently have national standards that regulate supplements like drugs. This provides for an interesting dynamic because those in favor of higher limits for nutrients are clearly in the minority. As a consequence, it of the utmost importance that consumers, supplement manufacturers and our chosen representatives work together to ensure that health freedoms are not lost to national interests that are totally out of sync with the safety and benefits of dietary supplements. Once Codex standards and guidelines are ratified in Rome, these regulations will be recognized worldwide and will be the accepted norm in ensuring fair trade practices and protecting consumer health. It is therefore incumbent upon us to voice our opposition to any guidelines (or “regulations”) that would restrict the availability of a wide array of health-enhancing and innovative supplements. If you are concerned about preserving your health freedoms and are worried that international regulations could severely restrict your access to supplements, we encourage you to write to Dr. Barbara Schneeman and also to your elected officials. Tell them that you are opposed to any international regulations that would impact the status of supplements as regulated by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education act of 1994 (DSHEA). In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” We must always be on guard to ensure our health freedoms are not taken away. By James Gormley and Jim Roza To protect your freedoms, consider supporting Citizens for Health (http://www.citizens.org) with a contribution and please consider asking your favorite supplement companies to please do so, as well. Also find out about the good work being done in Europe by the Alliance for Natural Health (http://www.alliance-natural-health.org). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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