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Urge the US CODEX Delegation to Protect DSHEA

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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).

 

 

 

 

 

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