Law Suit v Pharma Tyranny over Nutritionals - Long

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> Fri, 17 Oct 2003 04:01:05 +0200

> Law Suit v Pharma Tyranny over Nutritionals

>

> The Institute of Science in Society

>

>

> Science Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

>

>

> First 300 key vitamins and minerals axed, now

> 5 000 supplements banned by " insane " EU Directive.

>

> Sam Burcher reports on the right to freedom

> for the £1.6 billion alternative health industry.

>

>

> The Alliance of Natural Health (ANH) is set to legally challenge

> the contentious EU Directive on Food Supplements (FSD). The

> FSD passed into European law in July 2002 and effectively

> brings about a ban on 300 nutrients included in 5 000 health

> products, most of which are in dietary supplements closest to

> food forms.

>

> In July this year, the House of Commons Standing Committee for

> FSD Regulations met and voted the Food Supplement Directive

> through into English, Scottish and Welsh law. Dr Robert Verkerk,

> executive director of London-based ANH hopes a successful

> challenge would result in the FSD being overturned by all EU

> states.

>

>

> The ANH represent the interests of a number of organisations

> including the British Association of Complimentary Medicine

> and the British Society for Allergy Environmental and Nutritional

> Medicine as well as a number of independent manufactures,

> suppliers and distributors of vitamins and minerals. Together

> they suggest the existing Directive be replaced with a revised

> FSD that allows for high quality, effective supplements across

> the whole of Europe. This would effectively harmonise to good

> standards, not bad ones.

>

>

> Three other Directives concerning Herbal Medicine, Novel

> Foods and EU Medicines are under consideration, but have not

> yet been ratified into UK law. The appropriation of traditional

> products is likely to increase with food supplements, food

> substances and food/beverages (health drinks and fruit juices)

> suppressed by EU Directives repackaged as " Nutraceuticals "

> and sold by pharmaceutical companies. (See box 1)

>

>

> Two Labour MPs have voiced concerns about the way the

> Regulations were voted through by the Standing Committee.

> Kate Hoey MP (Vauxhall) revealed what happened: " I was a

> member of this committee until I said, very honestly, that I would

> vote against the regulations. " She was, together with five other

> MPs, " unceremoniously removed " from the committee the night

> before the vote took place and replaced with MPs who voted in

> favour of the FSD.

>

>

> According to Kate Hoey, this gives a clear message that the

> government cares more for the pharmaceutical industry that it

> does about ordinary people. Her views are shared by Jeremy

> Corbyn MP (Islington), he said: " The FSD is a product of ruthless

> lobbying tactics by the pharmaceutical industry which is not keen

> on the diversity of supply of vitamin supplements available in

> health food shops. " He backs the ANH move to legally challenge

> the Directive.

>

>

> Legal challenges are seldom made to the 40 000 EU Directives

> implemented since the UK joined the Common Market in 1972,

> ostensibly to share in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

> But Conservative MP Daniel Hannan complained to the Daily

> Telegraph last September 3, that, " whenever you see an

> apparently insane Brussels Directive, someone, somewhere

> stands to gain. " And in his view, the Directives affecting natural

> remedies resulted because of lobbying by the large

> pharmaceutical companies. (See box 2)

>

>

> MEP, Nigel Farrage said that on one occasion, MEPs were

> required to vote on Directives 450 times in one 80-minute

> session. He freely admitted that it was a farce and he voted as

> he was told.

>

>

> To simply question the validity of food supplementation is no

> longer enough when it is generally acknowledged that modern

> food production methods and deterioration of soil due to

> intensive farming are affecting vitamins and mineral content in

> food. For example, levels of the mineral selenium (Se) declined

> 50% between 1974-1991 and the UK population selenium levels

> are lower than many other European countries. Scientific studies

> show selenium is an essential nutrient associated with the

> function of major metabolic pathways, and taken up rapidly by

> the body when given as a dietary supplement. Also well

> established is the fact that dietary selenium is important for a

> healthy immune response, and the effects of its deficiency can

> include decreased T-cell counts and impaired lymphocyte

> proliferation. Fourteen forms of selenium, including the organic

> forms, selenium yeast and selenomethionine are forbidden on

> 'The Positive List

>

>

> In fact vulnerable groups such as the elderly, pregnant and those

> coping with chronic diseases such as arthritis can all benefit

> from food supplements. But, in essence, the FSD is another

> blow to the individual's freedom to choose how to look after their

> health, be it in conjunction with a good diet, or simply as a

> preventative against developing a chronic disease. Increasing

> visits to GPs to obtain the correct supplements, as the Directive

> would have us do will not suit the overburdened Health Service

> at all, but it might just serve the big corporations.

>

>

>

> Box 1

>

> Some of the 300 vitamins and mineral excluded from the FSD

> positive list

> Substance

> Benefit

> Boron (All forms)

> Required for absorption of calcium

> Vitamin E (naturally occurring tocopherols and toctotrienols)

> Antioxidants, which protect against damage by free radicals,

> associated with

> cancer and other degenerative diseases.

> Calcium (23 food forms)

> For bones, teeth and cell function

> Chromium (17 forms)

> For balancing blood sugar levels, widely used by diabetics

> Magnesium (30 forms)

> Healthy bones and teeth

> Potassium (21 forms)

> Maintains blood pressure and heart beat rhythm

> Silica (All forms)

> Works in conjunction with boron, calcium, and other minerals to

> support

> bones, arteries, connective tissue, hair, skin and nails

> Selenium (14 forms)

> Antioxidant, important for heart function. Contributes to healthy

> immune

> response.

>

>

> The dietary supplement Glucosamine, a combination of

> minerals,vitamins and fatty acids bought by millions of arthritis

> suffers to ease their painful symptoms has been banned as a

> food supplement by the Medicines Agency in Denmark and

> Sweden. Instead it is has been allowed on to the shelves as an

> over the counter medicine produced by Recip Glucosine and

> Pharma Nord - two pharmaceutical companies.

>

>

> Box 2

>

> The Food Supplements Directive covers two fundamental

> areas:

>

> 1. The types of vitamins and minerals that may be legally sold

> from mid-2005.

> 2. The maximum doses at which they may be supplied from

> 2006.

>

>

> The EU Commission has designated a list of permissible

> nutrients called 'The Positive List.' Specialist vitamin

> manufactures have expressed concern that their products

> containing organic ingredients, excluded from the 'List', are

> being compromised by synthetic or inorganic equivalents that

> are on the 'List.' All attempts to include a number of organic

> vitamins and minerals have been refused. Not only that, but to

> register their high quality products for sale could cost up to

> £250,00 per nutrient plus evidence of their safety. All nutrients

> must be paid for and registered by August 2005, putting small,

> large and medium suppliers of food supplements under intense

> pressure.

>

>

> Maximum doses or Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for

> vitamins and minerals will be negotiated over the next 18

> months. Levels are to be set by the EU Scientific Committee to

> Food (SCF), who are not accountable to any government or

> parliament and have banned 300 nutrients so far (See box 1).

> Two commonly occurring vitamins, which have a wealth of

> scientific study to support their validity, are vitamin C and vitamin

> B6. The ANH fear RDA doses will be rendered so low that

> consumers will have to buy much more of the product to receive

> their current nutritional dose or that they might disappear from

> the shelves altogether.

>

>

> Sources:

>

>

> Legal Bid Challenges EU Food Directive. Health Matters vol 5

> No.6 July/August 2003.

> Wright O. Johnston C. Bennett R. Clampdown on Alternative

> Medicines. The Times. 20th September 2003.

> Watts. M. Right to Buy Essential Supplements. The Argus. July

> 19th 2003

> Brown KM. Pickard K. Nicol F. Beckett G.J. Duthie G.G. Arthur

> J.R. Effects of organic and inorganic selenium supplementation

> on selenoenzyme activity in blood lymphocytes, granulocytes,

> platelets and erythrocytes. The Rowett Research Institute Clinical

> Science 98, 593-599. 2000

> Burcher S. Hands off Vitamins and Herbs. Science in Society

> Issue 17. p19-20 Winter 2003. © Institute of Science in Society

> What's the Future? Linking Bioscience with Nature. © BioCare

> 2003

> Food Supplements Directive 2003. Alliance for Natural Health

> www.alliance-natural-health.org

>

>

>

> This article can be found on the I-SIS website at

> http://www.i-sis.org.uk/vitamins2.php

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> ================================

>

>

> ANH Press Release

>

>

> ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH

> MOUNTS LEGAL CHALLENGE`TO THE FOOD

> SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVE BAN ON THE SALE

> AND MANUFACTURE OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

>

>

> WHO IS THE ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH?

>

>

> The ANH is a pan-European and International organisation of

> supplement manufacturers, retailers, practitioners and

> consumers very concerned about the negative effects of the

> European Food Supplements Directive, which come into effect

> in this country on 1 August 2005.

>

>

> WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT OF THE DIRECTIVE?

>

>

> The Directive will ban about 300 of the 420 or so forms of

> vitamins and minerals present in around 5000 products on the

> UK market, many of which are sold in high street health food

> stores. The ban will have a similar effect on products in such

> countries as Sweden, the Netherlands and Ireland which have

> advanced markets for food supplements.

>

> WHY WILL THE BAN HAVE CATASTROPHIC

> EFFECTS ON THE FOOD SUPPLEMENTS INDUSTRY?

>

>

> There is a growing deterioration in the UK diet bought about by

> the economic pressure of big business and the advertising of

> fast food. The decreasing nutritional quality of the average diet

> along with the increasing exposure to toxins make the role of

> nutrition, including use of supplements, of paramount importance

> in healthcare in order to address the growing incidence of

> degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and

> osteoporosis to mention but a few. The ban will have the effect of

> making it much more difficult for anyone concerned about their

> health and diet to supplement it with a range of products which

> have been consumed and sold for years without any health risk.

>

>

> The second impact of the ban is that many small companies who

> research into, produce and market these safe and effective food

> supplements will be unable to sell them without investing huge

> sums of money in proving their safety despite the fact that we

> have been consuming many of the food-forms of nutrients to be

> banned in many cases for hundreds of years with no known

> health risk.

>

>

> THE ANH CHALLENGE

>

>

> The ANH has begun the legal process for a declaration that the

> Directive is invalid under European law. Aided by lawyers from

> Brick Court Chambers and The Simkins Partnership in London,

> the ANH has set out to prove that this potentially catastrophic

> ban is not only unnecessary, but unlawful.

>

>

> Dr Rob Verkerk PhD, Executive Director of the ANH says: " This

> is a groundbreaking challenge to another intrusive and unwanted

> EU Directive ban which we aim to demonstrate has been

> passed unlawfully from the EU into UK law. We believe that it will

> rob the consumer of the right to buy important nutritional

> supplements to improve their diet and health and that of their

> children, as well as putting hundreds of small businesses and the

> livelihoods of thousands at risk. There is absolutely no

> justification for this ban and we aim to get it removed. "

>

>

> SMALL BUSINESSES

> SUFFER MOST FROM THE DIRECTIVE

>

> Mike Ash, Managing Director of Nutri-Link Limited, a West

> Country based manufacturer and supplier of supplements to

> practitioners and health stores, is a co-claimant with the ANH.

> He represents many of the small businesses, which will be hit by

> the ban, and says:

>

>

> " The Directive bans many of our most popular products and

> forces us and many other manufacturers needlessly to

> reformulate other key products. The cost to us to reformulate

> tried and tested products to comply with the directive is

> enormous. To develop a single product can take months of

> careful assessment and analysis. If we have to spend our time

> until August 2005 reformulating existing products to comply with

> the directive we cannot develop new products. In many instance,

> reformulation will not be possible at all as the most important

> ingredients of the product will be banned by the directive. The

> ban is a catastrophe for our business and customers. "

>

>

> WHAT WILL BE BANNED BY THE DIRECTIVE?

>

>

> Among the 300 ingredients to be banned by the Directive will be

> natural forms of Vitamin E, found in food wheatgerm and organic

> bound minerals like selenocysteine, found in brazil nuts. In

> addition the directive aims to ban nearly all important trace

> elements used in supplements, including boron and vanadium.

>

>

> Demand for products nutrients sourced from natural ingredients

> is increasing rapidly among consumers simply because such

> products work very effectively. An increasing number of scientific

> reports are supporting their use in place of older-style synthetic

> nutrients that have been the mainstay of the supplement industry

> for several decades.

>

>

> Synthetic vitamins and inorganic minerals, typical ingredients in

> multivitamin and mineral products found in supermarkets and

> pharmacies will not be affected by the ban.

>

>

> In summary, advanced natural and well absorbed vitamin and

> mineral nutrients will be banned and what will be allowed will be

> the old-fashioned, synthetic versions, which tend to be much less

> effective.

>

>

> The Foods Supplements Directive ban on advanced nutrients

> thus destroys innovation and deprives consumers of the best

> food supplements now available.

>

>

>

> Contacts:

>

> Robert Verkerk BSc, MSc, DIC, PhD

> Executive Director

> Tel. (general): 01252 371 275

> Tel. (direct): 0771 484 7225

> e-mail:robv

>

>

> David Hinde LLb Solicitor

> Legal Director

> Tel. (direct):0207738 1640

> Mobile:07958 548 186

> E-mail:davidh

> Refer to website www.alliance-natural-health.orgfor further

> details.

>

>

>

> ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

> International Advocates for Health Freedom

> POB 10632 Blacksburg VA 24062 USA

> http://www.iahf.com ; http://iadsa-exposed.tripod.com

> 800-333-2553 N.America

> 540-961-0476 World

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