Health Freedom Being Attacked: Act NOW

[Guest guest]

MinnWellness

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:21:05 EDT

Health Freedom Being Attacked: Act NOW

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 16, 2006

 

S. 3546 IS GOING to the SENATE FLOOR this WEEK!

 

The Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription and Drug Consumer

Protection Act

(Adverse Event Reporting)

 

MUST BE OPPOSED

 

S. 3546 will be voted on Soon!

 

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS TODAY.

 

ASK YOUR SENATORS TO OPPOSE THIS LEGISLATION AND UNANIMOUS CONSENT

 

 

S. 3546 may be placed before the Senators as a Roll call vote (which

we

support) or by Unanimous Consent (which we oppose). Unanimous

Consent may

be requested by a Senator and, once requested, will expedite the

proceedings

so as to rush this bill through to passage.

 

 

There is no time to be lost. Today, not tomorrow, tell your

Senators to

OPPOSE Unanimous Consent and ask that they NOT support this

extremely

harmful legislation.

 

Reasons to Oppose S. 3546:

 

It will establish mandatory adverse event reporting for dietary

supplements

and over-the-counter drug manufacturers.

 

Supplements have a proven track record of safety and should not be

treated

as drugs.

 

If passed, it would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

(FDCA)

and will mandate needless FDA regulations that will treat

supplements like

drugs. DSHEA 's intent was for supplements to be regulated as

foods, not

drugs.

 

It will probably raise the price of supplements to consumers.

 

If passed, this bill could destroy the availability of effective

dietary

supplements in the U.S. by wrongfully associating their usage with

serious

health events when in fact it is often the drugs and other

interventions

taken by the patients that actually led to the serious event.

 

It will ensure more federal regulation on supplements and more

controls

being imposed on your healthcare choices.

 

The FDA currently has in place a voluntary reporting system that is

working

quite well since its inception in 2003. The FDA itself has already

testified that it does not need AER reporting for supplements.

 

There are already FDA toll-free numbers and FDA Form 3500 in place

for

anyone to submit any drug, device, or dietary supplement that has

seriously

harmed anyone.

 

Senator Durbin has pushed extremely hard for the passage of a

mandatory AER

bill and his term does not end until 2008. We must stop Durbin and

stop him

now.

 

As stated by our lobbyist, Lee Bechtel, " The true purpose of the AER

system

is to empower the FDA to take supplements off the market upon the

least,

little hint (one single report if Durbin has his way) that " harm "

has

occurred, even if that report is spurious. "

 

If enacted, AER reporting would establish legislative and regulatory

basis

for the FDA to make manufacturers pay " supplement User Fees " to fund

AER

functions, costing the consumer.

 

It would give the FDA more control over market access for new

supplement

products.

 

The AER system would unfairly impact the small natural-products

companies.

If an AER is reported, the FDA demands drug-like safety data from

the

manufacturer, which will be extremely expensive for the " little

guys " versus

the big supplement companies, many owned by pharmaceutical

companies. Many

small companies will just have to close their doors and competition

will be

reduced.

 

The end result of this anti-supplement consumer legislation is that

more

people will die than would be saved as affordable healthy

supplements will

be priced out of the market.

 

There are at least 60 million or more supplement users and health-

freedom

advocates opposed to this legislation. NOW IS THEIR TIME TO BE

HEARD.

 

THIS COULD TRULY BEGIN THE DOWNFALL OF DSHEA LEGISLATION THAT WE ALL

WORKED SO HARD TO HAVE PASSED IN 1994.

 

Please OPPOSE S. 3546

 

Go to these links at the NHF website to OPPOSE S. 3546 :

 

 

 

Bill information

 

Bill analysis by NHF Lobbyist, Lee Bechtel

 

Sample Petition Letter

 

Click on this address to find your U.S. Senators:

http://www.senate.gov

 

Click on the following link for individual mailing addresses for

letter

writing and other contact info for Senate Members: U.S. Senate List

 

This press release was written by the NATIONAL HEALTH FEDERATION,

P.O. Box

688, Monrovia, CA 91017 USA ~ 1 (626) 357-2181 ~ Fax 1 (626) 303-0642

 

Bill information: http://www.thenhf.com/s3546is.pdf

 

Go to these links at the NHF website to OPPOSE S.3546 :

 

Bill analysis by NHF Lobbyist, Lee Bechtel:

http://www.thenhf.com/government_affairs_93.htm

 

Sample Petition Letter:

http://www.thenhf.com/S3546_sample_petition_letter.htm

 

Click on this address to find your U.S. Senators:

http://www.senate.gov

 

Click on the following link for individual mailing addresses for

letter

writing and other contact info for Senate Members:

http://www.thenhf.com/U.S.%20Senate%20List%20109th%20Congress.htm

 

You can take action also at: http://www.lef.org/featured-

articles/consumer_alert_130906.htm

 

Feel free to pass this to friends and family...NOW.