Vitamins and EU Legislation

[Guest guest]

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