Vitamins and EU Legislation

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Vitamins and EU Legislation

 

 

The vitamin and mineral tablets used by millions of British people are under

threat. Products such as 1gram Vitamin C tablets that are frequently used in

the cold season, and the mineral Boron, important for strong bones and

teeth, are set to become illegal once recently passed European laws are

fully introduced. The law will come into effect next August and Carole

Caplin, who joined us on the programme, is supporting the campaign to try

and stop this directive becoming law.

 

A raft of EU legislation looks set to nip the natural medicine market in the

bud: soon, that popular vitamin C, echinacea and zinc combination may not be

allowed on the shelves. Estimates of the impact of this new legislation

vary, but hundreds of vitamin and mineral supplements could be banned

outright, while an as yet incalculable number of common herbal remedies will

disappear unless consumers challenge it. The National Association of Health

Food Stores claims that as many as three-quarters of its members could go

out of business.. Almost every multi-vitamin tablet sold in Britain will

have to be reformulated to avoid breaking the law.

 

In recent years, so many more consumers have been turning to the health

store in preference to the doctor's surgery that it had begun to seem a

permanent fixture in modern life. All sorts of perfectly sensible people who

want to take greater personal responsibility for their health are finding

solutions, or partial ones, at least, in natural remedies.

* Arthritis sufferers tired of conventional anti-inflammatory drugs that

upset the stomach are looking to alternatives such as glucosamine sulphate

and chondroitin.

* People prone to anxiety are choosing kava kava over Valium

* Those who feel depressed are going for St John's wort in preference to

conventional anti-depressants such as Prozac.

* Menopausal women are seeing black cohosh as an attractive alternative to

hormone replacement therapy.

* The hungover take high doses of vitamins B and C (e.g., in the popular

Berocca tablets).

 

This surge is reflected in the media. Conventional " doctor knows best "

columns have been eclipsed by alternative practitioners with a proactive

attitude to health and a range of natural, nonpharmaceutical suggestions for

the treatment of everything from cold sores to migraine.

 

WHY HAS THIS CHANGE COME ABOUT?

The attack comes from four different pieces of legislation, one of which is

already in force, another approved in principle. All are couched in the now

familiar EU language of consumer safety and free trade. Currently, the UK,

the Netherlands and Ireland have a far more permissive attitude towards

supplements than other member states, and make available a wider range of

higher-dose remedies. This approach is in line with those in the US,

Australia, New Zealand and Canada. But those days are numbered. The idea

behind the new regulations is that, you should have the same range and

strength of supplements at your disposal.

 

CURRENT DOSES AVAILABLE

The Food Supplements Directive will set maximum levels for vitamins and

minerals. Currently, consumers in the UK can buy high-strength vitamins in

dosages that are way above what's known as the recommended daily allowance

(RDA). Far from being a formula for good health, however, the RDA is simply

the minimum dose you need to prevent nutritional deficiency. Now, modern

research into the positive health properties of vitamins and minerals is

focused on safe upper levels, or " suggested optimal nutrient allowances "

(SONAs), much larger doses that actively promote health, rather than simply

prevent disease.

 

The difference between the two is vast. The RDA for vitamin B5, for example,

is just 6mg, but consumers in the UK can currently buy it in 550mg doses;

and arthritis sufferers take it in doses as high as 1g-2g, and find it

efficacious. Meanwhile, in most other European countries, a much more

restrictive range of vitamin and minerals, based on the RDA, is available. A

likely EU consensus might set limits at only two or three times the RDA,

representing a liberalisation for most European countries, but decimating

the choice available to the British consumer.

 

This " framework " directive has already been approved in principle by MEPs;

now that the full implications of the directive are emerging. The

all-important detail - the setting of new upper limits and an agreed

" positive list " of nutrients - will be decided next spring. So far, some 300

popular nutrient forms from which thousands of supplements are derived are

not listed. " This will wipe the most popular and effective higher-dose

vitamins and minerals off the shelves, " says Sue Croft of Consumers for

Health Choice, the group that successfully campaigned between 1997 and 1998

against the proposed ban on higher-dose vitamin B6. " Millions of people will

have their choices restricted or taken away. "

 

IMPROVED STANDARDS?

The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive says that herbal

remedies can only be licensed if they can be shown to be safe and produced

to high standards. That sounds reasonable enough - until you learn that

herbal remedies will be licensed in the same way as drugs. A company making

garlic capsules, for example, will have to go through many of the same

regulatory hoops as a company producing a new pharmaceutical drug. Estimates

for the cost of getting these herbal licences vary from £10,000 to several

million pounds a product.

 

This would almost certainly deter all but the largest companies from

producing remedies such as St John's wort, kava kava, gingko biloba, red

clover, rhodiola, evening primrose oil and ginger. Furthermore, to get a

licence, a specific product must have been on the market for 30 years, 15 of

which must have been in Europe. The effects of that time bar are dramatic.

Black cohosh, an oestrogenic herb traditionally used by native Americans,

has demonstrated results superior to hormone replacement therapy in the

treatment of menopausal symptoms, with women who take the herb reporting

fewer adverse events, even than those taking a placebo.

 

NOVEL FOODS DIRECTIVE

This has already been in force. This was originally designed to control

genetically modified foods and new, so-called " functional " foods, such as

fish oil-enriched bread, but is now being applied to absolutely everything

that is sold under food law. Any food product (which includes supplements)

that was not on the EU market before May 15 1997 can only be granted

approval after submission of a dossier containing huge amounts of technical

and safety data.

 

The final attack seems on the surface to be an innocuous tidying-up of the

EU Medicines Directive. In fact, it will mean that anything with a

physiological action can be reclassified as a medicine. Under EU

definitions, that means that any product sold in a health store, even herbal

tea, could be deemed to be medicines, while items such as coffee and

grapefruit juice (which also have proven physiological effects, but which

are sold in food shops), will not be affected. The new EU laws will say that

a product must be either one or the other.

 

The MCA already has the power to remove from the market any supplement it

considers to be dangerous. Conventional pharmaceutical drugs, on the other

hand, are sold on a costs versus benefits basis, the thinking being that the

beneficial effects of the drug should be balanced against its risks. Side

effects are simply an accepted part of the pharmaceutical package. " There

has never been a death due to vitamin and minerals in the UK, " says Holford,

" but thousands have been caused by conventional drugs. The risks are

completely different. "

 

WHAT VITAMINS WILL BE BANNED? * 500ml & 1000ml vit C- this is the single

most popular vitamin sold in GB.

* 50ml & 100ml Vitamin B6- many women use this for PMS and men use this to

de-stress

* Every single multi- vitamin

* Borin mineral used to help the absorption of Calcium & selenium- good for

use in fertility, brittle nails. Borin & Selenium are minerals that we can

no longer find in our soil and therefore supplements are the only way of

getting them.

 

WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP THIS?

You can lobby your MP to ensure they are working against this. You can get

information and sign petitions at your local health food shop or sign the

online petition at either www.conservatives.com/vitamins or

www.healthchoice.org.uk