EMERGENCY ALERT! MCCAIN ATTACKS SUPPLEMENTS! HELP KILL DIETARY SUPPLEMENT SAF

[Guest guest]

Fwd From John Hammell and the IAHF List: _jham_

(jham) - 0n fed 7, 2010

 

IAHF List:

 

 

Tomorrow morning (February 8th) I am flying to Washington DC to oppose

S.3002, the (so called) Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010- the latest

threat to curtail our access to dietary supplements.

 

 

I am in touch with JD Hayworth who is running against McCain in Arizona,

and have handed him this issue on a silver platter urging him to use it

against McCain. After familiarizing yourself please join me in urging Hayworth

to use this issue against McCain by communicating with him through his

website at _http://www.jdhayworth.com/contact.php_

(http://www.jdhayworth.com/contact.php)

 

 

I'll be visiting as many Senators as I can to help them have a more

balanced perspective on this dangerous bill so they won't support it. Please

support my trip to DC via a donation to IAHF through paypal at

_http://www.iahf.com/index1.html_ (http://www.iahf.com/index1.html) or by

sending a check

to IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts WA 98281 USA.

 

 

TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

 

 

(By reading the form letter at this link

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0) you can quickly grasp the danger of this bill and send a

message against it to your Senators. If you want more details, read on:

 

 

 

MORE DETAILS ON THIS DANGEROUS BILL

 

 

 

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) has introduced S.3002- The Dietary Supplement

Safety Act of 2010. The bill has one cosponsor (Byron Dorgan D-ND).

Once they've received the bill language and have posted it, you'll be able

to read the bill by going to _http://thomas.loc.gov_

(http://thomas.loc.gov) (click the box for bill number and enter S.3002)

 

 

On the surface, this bill might seem reasonable enough, but as usual, the

devil lies in the details.

 

 

The title is: " A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

to more effectively regulate dietary supplements that may pose safety risks

unknown to consumers. "

 

 

Although fewer than 5% of all bills that are introduced are ever passed

into law, and this bill doesn't yet have a House companion bill, it does pose

a serious threat to repeal major provisions of the Dietary Supplement

Health and Education Act and it does have major backing by the US Anti Doping

Agency _http://www.usada.org/default.aspx_

(http://www.usada.org/default.aspx) which is funded by Major League sports and

numerous amateur athletic

organizations _http://www.supplementsafetynow.com/partners/_

(http://www.supplementsafetynow.com/partners/)

 

 

On their website _http://www.supplementsafetynow.com/partners/_

(http://www.supplementsafetynow.com/partners/) they have videos and other

propaganda via which they seek to demonize the dietary supplement industry. A

Harvard MD actually likens purchasing of dietary supplements to " playing

Russian

Roulette. "

 

 

The problem with what they're saying is that the FDA already HAS all the

enforcement power they need to remove misbranded products from the market,

and they HAVE been using it as evidenced here

_http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/sports/24steroids.html_

(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/sports/24steroids.html)

 

 

The pro pharma FDA doesn't NEED more power to misuse against safe dietary

supplements- they just need to DO THEIR JOB as mandated by the Dietary

Supplement Health & Education Act which McCain's bill would effectively repeal.

 

 

McCain’s bill is called The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA). It would

repeal key sections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act

(DSHEA).

DSHEA protects supplements if

 

 

1) they are food products that have been in the food supply and not

chemically altered or

2) if they were sold as supplements prior to 1994, the year that DSHEA was

passed.

 

 

If a supplement fits one of these two descriptions, the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) cannot arbitrarily ban it or reclassify it as a drug.

 

 

These protections are far from perfect. They discourage companies from

developing new forms of supplements. New supplements may be arbitrarily banned

by the FDA or adopted by drug companies in a way that precludes their

further sale as supplements.

 

 

McCain’s bill would wipe out even the minimal protections contained in

DSHEA. It would give the FDA full discretion and power to compile a discreet

list of supplements allowed to remain on the market while banning all

others.

 

 

Everyone knows that the FDA is friendly to drug companies (which pay its

bills and provide good revolving door jobs) and hostile to supplement

companies.

 

 

Under this bill, this same Agency could quite arbitrarily ban any

supplement it wished or turn it over to drug companies to be developed as a

drug

and sold for multiples of its price as a supplement.

 

 

We must prevent this bill from gaining traction! Protect your access to

supplements by contacting your senators today and asking them NOT to

co-sponsor the Dietary Supplement Safety Act but rather to oppose it.

TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

 

 

McCain’s Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) appears to be supported by

the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) which is funded by major league sports

teams including baseball, football and others. The recent suspensions of NFL

and other professional sports figures is much in the news, and the goal of

the sports industry appears to be to shift the spotlight from their players

to the supplements industry.

 

 

In his comments, Senator McCain cited six NFL players recently suspended

for testing positive for banned substances and purportedly exposed to these

substances through dietary supplements.

 

 

The problem here of course is one of illegal sale and use of steroids. So

why dismantle the supplement industry in order to control already illegal

substances? This is a clear cut case of overreaching.

 

 

The FDA currently has complete and total authority to stop illegal

steroids and, more broadly, to regulate dietary supplements. If the agency were

doing its job, it could and would have prevented the sale of illegal

steroids. The answer to this problem is not to give FDA more power. The Agency

simply needs to do it’s job.

TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

 

 

Why would a bill be offered to solve an illegal steroid problem that does

not really address the steroid problem but instead gives the FDA complete

and arbitrary control over all supplements? The answer is simple.

 

 

There are a lot of vested interests which are threatened by supplements.

Drug companies do not like them because they represent a low cost, safer,

and often more effective alternative to drugs. The FDA does not like them

because supplements do not come through the FDA approval process and therefore

do not support the FDA budget.

Why not simply require that supplements be brought through the FDA’s drug

approval process? Wouldn’t that create a level playing field?

 

 

That is probably the argument that Senator McCain has been sold. But it is

a completely false argument. The FDA drug approval process costs as much

as a billion dollars. It is not economically feasible to spend such vast

sums on substances that are not protected by patent, and natural substances

cannot legally be patented.

 

 

This is the great “Catch 22†of American medicine. The FDA, which is

supposed to guard and promote our health, is hostile to the kind of natural

medicine—based on diet, supplements, and exercise—that represents the real

future of healthcare. The Agency has either been captured by drug interests

or is trapped in a catastrophically expensive, toxic, and ineffective

patented-drug model.

 

 

Senator McCain has no doubt offered this bill in good faith. But he has

been sold a bill of goods by special interests. And he has been naïve enough

not to know that he is being used.

TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

 

 

This exceptionally bad bill also requires the reporting of all minor

adverse events related to supplements. This is in addition to the already

existing requirement to report adverse events. This will further stack the deck

against small supplement companies by creating new, unnecessary, even more

cumbersome, and of course very expensive administrative hurdles.

 

 

The result: the consolidation of the supplement industry into a few big

companies.If passed, this bill will likely result in the disappearance from

store shelves of many supplements currently on the market. In addition to

fewer supplements, there would likely be much lower doses available.

Unbridled authority would be handed to the FDA, an agency that needs a top to

bottom overhaul, not ever more power over our lives.

 

 

The FDA will like this because it believes that it can more easily control

a few industry giants. But isn’t it more likely that the industry giants

will eventually gain control over the FDA?

 

 

The FDA is already misusing the adverse event reporting process that

exists. Drugs rack up thousands of adverse event reports without any action.

Just recently, the FDA yanked from the market a supplement product based on

just a couple of alleged adverse event reports without even allowing the

company (an old and respected firm) to provide any counter-evidence or

counter-argument.

 

 

The bill also allows the FDA to yank a product (at the company’s expense)

if there is a “reasonable probability†that it is “adulterated†or “

misbrandedâ€. Let’s remember that “adulterated†could mean there is a

minor

record keeping error on the producer’s part and “misbranded†can mean

that

the producer simply tells the truth about the product. An “adulterated†and

“

misbranded†supplement in Orwellian FDA speak may actually be both

completely safe and effective.

 

 

If passed, this bill will likely result in the disappearance from store

shelves of many supplements currently on the market. In addition to fewer

supplements, there would likely be much lower doses available. Unbridled

authority would be handed to the FDA, an agency that needs a top to bottom

overhaul, not ever more power over our lives.

 

 

If McCain’s bill passes, we can look to Europe for a snapshot of what we

may be in for: EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has sharply reduced

the list of available supplements and is in process of reducing potencies

to ridiculous levels, such as less beta carotene than can be found in half

of a large carrot. Europeans already look to the US to obtain their dietary

supplements. If this bill passes, where will we obtain ours?

 

 

Please take action immediately. TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

Tell your senators NOT to co- sponsor this legislation and to do

everything in their power to defeat it. Then forward this to your friends and

family

and ask then to do the same!

 

 

I'll be visiting as many Senators as I can to help them have a more

balanced perspective on this dangerous bill so they won't support it. Please

support my trip to DC via a donation to IAHF through paypal at

_http://www.iahf.com/index1.html_ (http://www.iahf.com/index1.html) or by

sending a check

to IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts WA 98281 USA.

 

 

I have contacted JD Hayworth who is running against McCain to let him know

that in 1990 I worked on the campaign of Mark Robbins who ran against

Henry Waxman, another member of congress who has huge Pharmaceutical backing.

Using the health freedom issue as the tip of our spear, we knocked Waxman's

winning percentage down to the lowest of his career to send him a message.

 

 

It was only due to this effort that 2 years later, despite being the

biggest opponent in Congress of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act

of 1994, Waxman cosponsored it because he was afraid of angering his

constituents who we'd educated.

 

 

Hayworth has been a Congressman, and has a very popular radio show in

Arizona. He has a good chance of driving McCain from office. With your

donations, I might be able to go to Arizona to assist him in his efforts the

same

way I did with Mark Robbins in 1990.

 

 

Please support my trip to DC via a donation to IAHF through paypal at

_http://www.iahf.com/index1.html_ (http://www.iahf.com/index1.html) or by

sending a check to IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts WA 98281 USA. Please

forward this alert widely after first remembering to delete the unsub link

at the bottom so no one will click on it which would unsub you. Urge

everyone you know to call their Senators office in opposition to S.3002 and to

send in the form letter.

TAKE ACTION

_https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & i

d=510_

(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display & page=UserAction & id=51\

0)

 

 

* " We're Mad as Hell & We're Not Gonna Take it Anymore " is from the speech

by Howard Beale in the classic film " Network " which I urge you to watch

for free on the web here.

_http://www.youtube.com/das_captcha?next=/watch%3Fv%3Ddib2-HBsF08_

(http://www.youtube.com/das_captcha?next=/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08)

 

 

 

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_ (http://www.iahf.com) _jham_

(jham) 800-333-2553 N.America 360-945-0352 World

 

----------

----