Form letter to Assemblymembers opposing New York State Dietary Supplement Bills-

[Guest guest]

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

Assemblymember _____________________

Legislative Office Building

Albany,NY 12248

Dear Assemblymember ____________________:

I am writing to oppose the bills to regulate dietary supplements

A.3944,A.3357,A.4014 and A.2068. A.3944 is completely redundant and exactly

duplicates existing federal regulation requiring labeling of all supplements.

A.3357 authorizes the appointment of a Committee on Dietary Supplements to

suggest how to regulate these products on the State level. Since Dietary

Supplements are regulated at the Federal level by FDA, it is redundant and

probably unconstitutional. That is a legal matter, but does not address the

concern

with safety. The record of Dietary Supplements is very good as recorded by

the American Association of Poison Control Centers, _www.aapcc.org_

(http://www.aapcc.org/) Their annual report of instances of poisonings

reported to

them has shown extremely low numbers of incidents associated with dietary

supplements. For 2005, the last year on their website, the report shows a total

of

deaths loosely associated for all dietary supplements in the country was 27.

Of these 4 were recorded for Potassium, 2 for Magnesium and 2 for Sodium all

of which are used in the medical treatment of heart disease. Since heart

disease is the leading cause of death, according to the National Center for

Health Statistics, responsible for over 654,000 deaths in 2004, some of these

patients may use supplements. Not everyone treated can be saved. Melatonin, a

hormone connected to sleep was reported in 4 cases, this was its first

appearance on the reports since 2001. All the other cases are single

instances;

widely scattered indicating that it is very likely a statistical error that has

no significance for health policy. This same pattern of low numbers and

isolated single digit occurrences of adverse reactions were repeated every

year.

In 2001 the total number of deaths was 19, in 2002 11, in 2003 25, and 2004

22.

These very low Poison Control Statistics compare favorably to the 106,000

deaths from adverse reactions reported in the Journal of the American Medical

Association of April 15,1998; 295(5):1200-1205. These were not overdoses or

medical errors, giving the wrong drug to the wrong patient, but drugs properly

prescribed and taken as directed. Unfortunately prescription drugs have not

gotten any safer. Often the reason patients use dietary supplements are

because they are aware of the very real dangers of prescription drugs and look

for

alternatives.

Dietary supplements are much cheaper than prescription drugs, if these

regulations are adopted, it may drive out some of the smaller and innovative

manufacturers and raise prices like it has in Europe.

Sincerely,

_____________

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