Fwd: Form Letter Opposing Supplement Safety Act-Support DSHEA S.1538

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arnoldgore

Sat, 20 Sep 2003 16:02:23 EDT

Form Letter Opposing Supplement Safety Act-Support DSHEA S.1538

 

_____________________

 

______________________

 

_____________________

 

Senator_________________

US Senate

Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Senator ______________:

 

I am strongly opposed to the Supplement Safety Act of 2003. Under the Dietary

Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA), the current law FDA has authority to

regulate a dangerous supplement. But in reality there are very few instances of

possibly dangerous reactions to supplements. I have just examined the American

Association of Poison Control Centers Annual Report for 2001, the last year

available on their website.

It reports the total number of cases reported for different substances. The

figures show that the number of deaths from ALL vitamins was 0, ZERO. They group

vitamins separately. The number of deaths from ALL minerals was 7, and all other

dietary supplements were 12. Half of these were due to ephedra, an herb used for

weight loss and asthma. Therefore there were a grand total of 19 deaths from all

dietary supplements together. This is what concerns the FDA that is charged with

regulating prescription drugs that result in 106,000 deaths a year from drugs

taken " as directed " not overdoses or the wrong drug by mistake according to the

Journal of the American Medical association April 15, 1998. In other words there

are 5,579 times as many DEATHS from prescription drugs as from the supplements

FDA is spending its time and considerable resources to regulate with a miniscule

benefit in safety produced.

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, " Adverse Drug Events in

Ambulatory Care, April 17,2003 surveyed outpatients in Boston from 2 hospital

clinics and 2 community based centers. Of 661 patients they found 13% had

serious adverse reactions. If this percentage is typical of all patients taking

prescription drugs, the number of serious adverse reactions is quite high about

260 million per year.

 

I find it very hard to understand why FDA wants new powers to regulate the

safety of supplements that have such a good record. Current authority exists to

remove any truly dangerous supplement. Support the DSHEA Full Enforcement &

Implementation Act S.1538 sponsored by Senator Harkin.

 

Sincerely,

 

____________

Print your name

 

Form Prepared by Arnold Gore, Consumers Health Freedom Coalition 212-795-6460

arnoldgore (AT) aol (DOT) com

 

 

 

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