Ottawa to revive supplement safety bill

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Ottawa to revive supplement safety bill

 

 

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MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

October 30, 2008 at 8:47 AM EST

 

Health Minister Tony Clement plans to reintroduce controversial legislation

giving the federal government more oversight regarding the quality and safety

of supplements, vitamins and other natural health products.

A spokeswoman for the minister, Laryssa Waler, said yesterday that Ottawa

intends to go forward with new safety proposals to cover the booming and poorly

regulated supplement field, but didn't offer a timeline.

The decision is likely to cause another pitched battle within the natural

health products industry, where one major player, Jamieson Laboratories,

yesterday issued a public call for stricter regulations.

It argues that current rules are so lax that Ottawa can't even order harmful

products off store shelves and is only able to issue toothless health

advisories.

The earlier legislation, known as bill C-51, prompted a vociferous campaign

by some smaller health-products companies that said it would lead to

government restrictions on the types of supplements available on the market.

The bill

died when the election was called.

Jamieson had supported the previously proposed law and said that even

tougher standards were needed to protect public health from tainted materials

in

supplements.

The pressing need for more oversight was highlighted on Tuesday when Health

Canada issued an advisory saying that a company inadvertently sold a product

labelled as containing vitamin C that was improperly manufactured using

vitamin A instead. The products were sold under the brand names of New Roots

Herbal Vitamin C8 and Vitazan Professional Vitamin C Advanced Ascorbate.

Health Canada warned the pills may contain high doses of vitamin A, exposing

users " to potential risks of adverse events. " It urged consumers,

particularly pregnant women, not to use them.

The warning is the latest in a long string of advisories Health Canada has

made during the past two years over undeclared drugs, heavy metals and steroid

hormones, among other deleterious substances, that have been found in some

natural health products.

" Our government is committed to reintroducing food product safety

legislation, " Ms. Waler said. " It was in our platform that we will introduce

new

product safety legislation that will be in the spirit of C-51. "

The numerous advisories risk damaging consumer confidence in natural

products, which are used regularly by about four out of 10 Canadians.

Jamieson, one of the largest Canadian-based supplement makers, held a news

conference in Toronto yesterday to showcase its own product safety protocol,

which it says is one of the best in the business. It also renewed its call for

more federal oversight of the industry.

Federal regulation has " been too slow and did not go far enough, " says Vic

Neufeld, Jamieson's president and chief executive officer. " The Canadian

consumer has to be protected. "

Among Jamieson's safety steps are the auditing of its own suppliers and

dedicating about 20 per cent of its work force to quality control and testing.

Mr. Neufeld said one weakness in Canada is that a company importing a health

product ingredient only has to conduct safety tests on one shipment from

offshore suppliers each year. In South Korea, by contrast, the government

requires every batch that Jamieson sends there to be tested.

But a spokesman for one of the companies that led the fight against bill

C-51 said his firm opposes more rules.

Ian Stewart, director of regulatory affairs for Truehope Nutritional Support

Ltd., maker of a nutrient supplement the company purports to help against

mental illness, says new rules will be used by the government " to restrict and

remove natural health products from the market. " He said the beneficiaries of

increased regulation would be the large drug and supplement companies.