USA - SOS Save Our Supplements! Grass Roots Action Needed IMMEDIATELY To Oppose Bad AER Bill During Lame Duck Congress

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006 10:18 AM

SOS Save Our Supplements! Grass Roots Action Needed IMMEDIATELY To

Oppose Bad AER Bill During Lame Duck Congress Session This Week!!

 

 

IAHF List:[see Byron Richard's article below my comments]

 

Immediate grassroots action is needed RIGHT NOW to oppose the bad AER bill

because the Pharma Dominated NPA (Natural Products Assn) (formerly NNFA) just

sent a HUGE E-Blitz out to every vitamin company, and every health food store in

the country to try to push this TROJAN HORSE legislation.

 

This huge push by NPA threatens to blow the innovative sector of the supplement

industry SKY HIGH, and you MUST contact congress per the alert below AND network

this info for ALL YOU'RE WORTH!!

 

Please call your family, friends, neighbors about this and URGE them to join you

in taking action! Copy the article below. Take it to every health food store

within a 50 mile radius of your home and strongly urge the owner to QUIT NPA

(formerly NNFA). Use your strongest powers of persuasion to get all the staff in

the health food stores to read Byron's superb article below.

 

If you lack time right now to read it, at least skim through to the part where

with ONE MOUSE CLICK you can TAKE ACTION, then print it out and keep it by the

toilet so you can read it while sitting on the throne... but PLEASE READ IT-

this one is a MUST READ.

 

Donations needed to send IAHF back to DC: IAHF needs to return to DC after the

lame duck session to continue opposition to the bad AER bill and also for

ongoing work against the FDA's Trilateral Cooperation Charter. For $25. we'll

send a copy of Byron's book Fight for Your Health- Exposing FDA's Betrayal of

America. For $50. we'll send the book, plus Kevin Miller's documentary film " We

Become Silent " about the Codex vitamin issue.For $100. we'll send the above + an

IAHF Bumper Sticker. For $500. we'll send the above + an autographed photo of

John Hammell swimming in a hole cut in the ice of a frozen pond. Please help us

get back to DC so we can do our work! IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts

WA 98281 or via paypal: http://www.iahf.com click to enter site, see paypal link

on top of scrollbar inside the site.

http://www.iahf.com/

 

 

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron16.htm

 

BIG PHARMA TROJAN HORSES PERMEATE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY

By Byron J. Richards, CCN

December 5, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

 

Today I received an e-mail from the Natural Products Association (NPA) asking me

to support the Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Drug Consumer Protection

Act (the 1CAER bill 1D). Apparently they do not know I am one of the most

outspoken critics of this legislation. I have already posted two articles on

this topic for NWV, one in July

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron1.htm

and one in November

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron14.htm

The NPA, formerly the NNFA (National Nutritional Foods Association), is the

largest trade association for ingredient suppliers and health food stores. This

group, along with CRN (the Council for Responsible Nutrition) has been taken

over by Big Pharma and is selling out the supplement industry.

 

You as a consumer must weigh in on this subject before it is too late. Your

options for effective natural solutions are in serious jeopardy. Immediate

action is required to defend health freedom and your right to have therapeutic

choices in natural health options.

 

Unfortunately, it is up to 1Cwe the American people 1D to save the supplement

industry from traitorous groups pretending to be on your side. There is a

serious attempt underway to push this bill through prior to the close of the

lame duck session (apparently to end on December 8). Click here to take action

now, tell your congressional leaders to vote no on S. 3546/H.R. 6168.

http://www.thenhf.com/oppose_S3546_nhf_call_to_action_nov_2006.htm

 

This is what the December 4, 2006, NPA e-mail stated:

 

We 19re contacting you because an important bill may soon be voted on in

Congress. This legislation, which the Natural Products Association 13 along

with the other leading dietary supplement trade groups 13 supports, is, S. 3546

in the Senate and H.R. 6168 in the House of Representatives.

 

Yes, these are the names of the bills and they are rotten to the core for

consumers and the supplement industry.

 

Contrary to what you may have heard, this legislation will not affect the

availability of dietary supplements or lead to closures of health food stores.

 

Wrong, an outright lie! This legislation may drastically reduce the availability

of therapeutic supplements by linking them with adverse effects actually caused

by drugs. True, health food stores are not likely to close. They will keep

selling the lower quality Big Pharma brands, like One-A-Day (Bayer) and Centrum

(Wyeth). About 80% of the supplement market is not really concerned about your

health; this includes big box stores, most network marketing companies, drug

stores, super markets, and internet fly-by-night operations. Big Pharma knows

these brands pose no competition to their monopolistic drug cartel. Rather, Big

Pharma wants all effective nutrition off the market 13 the really great

products that fix diabetes, resolve depression, prevent heart disease, enable

weight loss, fix fibromyalgia, and help a person survive cancer treatment. Big

Pharma wants a sick America and will do anything to keep people in poor health

and on multiple toxic drugs.

 

It 19s also important to remember that the legislation would require only

serious 13 such as life threatening 13 experiences, not just any complaint, to

be reported. And keep in mind that the government already tracks adverse

experiences that could be related to dietary supplements.

 

The FDA is currently unable to properly track adverse events caused by drugs and

does not even know which drugs are safe. Over 100,000 Americans are killed each

year by drugs, and at least 3 million are injured so severely it requires

hospitalization. The FDA already has an adequate MedWatch reporting system for

serious adverse events for dietary supplements. The proposed bill calls for

supplement manufacturers to keep track of all complaints any person reports,

serious or not, a standard far stricter than truly dangerous drugs! This is

absolutely absurd.

 

If such legislation becomes law it will be used as a vehicle for the FDA to

remove supplements from the market based on hearsay data. There is no mechanism

in place for any supplement company to collect health information on the person

reporting, including existing medications or health history. This means the

legislation can and will be used as a witch hunt against effective natural

options for health. Certainly, the lawyers at NPA and those supporting this bill

are licking their chops at all the business this legislation will generate for

them.

 

What 19s new is that manufacturers who get reports of consumers being seriously

harmed by their products can 19t keep them secret. While we believe such

occurrences are extremely rare, if they do happen, reporting is the right thing

to do.

 

True serious adverse events from dietary supplements are extremely rare and

already covered by MedWatch. Any medical doctor or patient believing a

supplement has injured them can easily fill out a MedWatch form. No one has any

objection to serious AER reporting. That is not what this bill is really all

about. It is about gutting DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of

1994), the legislation that enables American consumers to have more options for

health than in any other country in the world. By implying there is a safety

problem (which there isn 19t) and making supplement companies defend themselves,

the burden of proof is shifted from the FDA to supplement companies, thereby

drastically changing existing law in favor of Big Pharma and away from access to

natural health options granted by DSHEA. The FDA already does what it can to

discriminate against small and innovative companies.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron12.htm

 

 

If H.R. 6168 and S. 3546 are passed and become law, they will amend the federal

Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to require the reporting of 1Cserious 1D adverse

events for both over the counter (OTC) drugs and dietary supplements to the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration.

 

That is true. However, there is no way to differentiate between drug-drug

interactions, drug-nutrient interactions, or food poisoning, meaning there is no

way to accurately judge what is causing a problem. Furthermore, the real issue

is the safety of drugs, not supplements. Until the FDA has a working system for

drug safety, there is no way for the FDA to judge supplement safety. There is a

reason the Institute of Medicine reported that the FDA is dysfunctional and not

able to protect Americans from harm. Its drugs!!!! 13 not vitamins.

 

While the Natural Products Association understands that the mandatory reporting

requirements of the AER bill will add to manufacturers 19 record keeping

responsibilities, we believe the bill will benefit the industry in the long run.

 

This opinion must be coming from the lawyers that stand to make a fortune

defending supplement companies from frivolous attacks relating to non-serious

adverse events. Also, doctors will attempt to blame vitamins for the devastating

side effects of their commonly prescribed medications. Dangerous drugs, like

statins

http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron15.htm

are in widespread use and making many Americans very ill and even causing

premature death. When someone has heart failure from taking statins, doctors

will try to blame it on vitamin E. It would be a major travesty to pass

legislation that allows the side effects of dangerous drugs to be reported in

such a way as to remove safe and effective supplements from the market. The Big

Pharma goal is to maintain its monopoly at any cost. It is an agenda based on

drug sales and a callous disregard for human life.

 

First, by helping to change the perception by critics of the dietary supplement

industry that it is not well regulated.

 

This is the Big Lie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

The truth is that supplements are safer than food. Supplements are not drugs.

Critics of the dietary supplement industry are all getting a pile of money from

Big Pharma and they pretend to be upset about network marketing companies making

bogus health claims, companies with a history of paying off Senators Hatch and

Harkin for protection. Since most of these companies that seemingly cause

problems are members of CRN and NNFA, why don 19t these junk trade organizations

clean up their own members? There is no need to put out of business the many

nutritional companies providing a true quality service to millions of Americans

in true need of real help, unless of course you are simply trying to put your

own competition out of business.

 

Second, over time, the recordkeeping and reporting requirements will

substantiate what many in the industry have been saying all along 13 that the

safety record of dietary supplements is exemplary, especially when compared to

other health-related products.

 

Obviously, true serious AERs will be very infrequent, unlike the several

thousand people dying each week at the hands of Big Pharma. However, the

recordkeeping requirement for non-serious adverse events opens the door for

unlimited FDA harassment of any company. Since the FDA is currently bought and

paid for by Big Pharma, that is a huge problem.

 

Ultimately, safety reporting is the right thing to do for a responsible industry

that puts consumers first.

 

In a world where Big Pharma and the FDA have spent decades trying to obliterate

competition, such a naïve statement is designed to appeal to 1Creasonableness

1D and 1Cpolitical correctness. 1D NPA has no concept of integrity to the US

Constitution or what makes America great. If anyone wants to believe the utopian

garbage put forth by NPA, try to get the statement to apply to Big Pharma.

 

The e-mail is then signed by the Natural Products Association. Yes, not one

person in this pathetic group had the nerve to put their name on this

embarrassing e-mail. I wonder who wrote it. Was it Senator Hatch 19s younger son

who works at NPA? Was it Senator Hatch 19s older son who lobbies for NPA? Or was

it one of the Big Pharma members sitting on the NPA board? Companies supporting

this horrid legislation and the related anti-American globalization agenda of

Codex Alimentarius include Mannatech, Herbalife, Shacklee, Now Foods, Dr. Weil

Vitamins, Jarrow, and many more.

 

Besides faxing, phoning, and e-mailing Congress to vote no on S.3546, any person

purchasing supplements should demand that whomever they buy supplements from is

not a member of CRN or NPA. Health food stores and ingredient suppliers should

withdraw from these bogus Big Pharma pro-globalization organizations. If you

need more facts to convince you of the magnitude of this problem, read my book

Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA 19s Betrayal of America

http://www.newswithviews.com/HNB/Hot_New_Books32.htm

If you buy supplements from such companies or stores then answer this simple

question: why are you paying money to be shot in the back?

 

© 2006 Truth in Wellness, LLC -

http://www.truthinwellness.com/

 

For Health Freedom, John C. Hammell, President International Advocates for

Health Freedom 556 Boundary Bay Road Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA

http://www.iahf.com jham 800-333-2553 N.America 360-945-0352 World