TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Saturday, September 06, 2003

From Insight magazine:

This time it is to keep the public safe from those infamous killers - vitamin pills. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has introduced legislation that effectively would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to remove from the market any dietary supplement it chooses, including vitamins E and C. Opponents of the bill say the senator may be deficient in his understanding of natural supplements . . .

Durbin's Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 (S 722), cosponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) . . . [would] require exotic proof of safety from any dietary-supplement maker if the agency has received so much as a single report of an adverse reaction (AR). If the manufacturers fail during hideously expensive tests to prove that the product is safe, the commissioner of the FDA can remove it from the market.

. . . the Durbin claims about dangers seem nothing if not wildly exaggerated.

. . . the senator wants to impose on manufacturers of natural dietary supplements the same exorbitant costs as have been imposed on drug manufacturers to make prescription medicines prohibitively expensive for so many Americans.
[...]
Advocates of natural medicines say the antidepressant Prozac, made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, is another interesting case Durbin may want to review before putting all his "public-safety" eggs in the FDA basket. As of September 1993 there had been nearly 30,000 AR reports associated with Prozac filed with the drug agency, including side effects such as delirium, hallucinations, convulsions, violent hostility and psychosis, plus 1,885 suicide attempts and 1,734 deaths - 1,089 by suicide. And according to Thomas G. Whittle and Richard Wieland, critics who obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act, "both Eli Lilly and officials of the FDA were aware that at least 27 deaths had been linked to the use of Prozac prior to the drug being released on the market."
[...]
Given the enormous number of AR reports filed about Ritalin and Prozac, to name just two pharmaceuticals, critics wonder aloud why, given the senator's concern about public safety, he has submitted no legislation to ban the use of those products. . .

David Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Foods Association. . . says "Our concern is that we're talking about products that have been used safely and effectively for thousands of years that now can be pulled from the market because of just one report. People will be able to call in with an adverse reaction to multivitamins and the commissioner will have the authority to make the manufacturer prove that multivitamins are safe. Under the 1994 DSHEA, supplements were classified as foods and under a totally different category than drugs. Drugs require premarket approval and are granted a patent. You're not going to be able to do that with vitamin C and other such natural products". . .

Len Horowitz, an internationally known public-health authority . . . continues . . . "This argument has to be understood within the context of the fear mentality generated by the media on behalf of the pharmaceuticals who don't want to tell you that the third leading cause of death in the U.S. is drug-induced, physician-prescribed, hospital-prescribed medications. You don't see the intensity over that, but you do see it over and over again when someone overdoses on ephedra."



TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS:Note the highlighted quote from the treade association guy. This is reminisent of the incident that led to the FDA moving against the use of Stevia as a food. Stevia leaf has been used as a natural sweetener for millenia. It is used to make candy in South America and Japan. In the 1980s, representatives of an "anonymous firm" lodged a "trade complaint" with the FDA over stevia use in Celestial Seasonings herbal teas, which eventually resulted it the leaf being banned as a food. Think of the competition stevia would provide for the sugar lobby, the ADM corn lobby, or Rumsfeld/Searle(now Monsanto)'s toxic aspartame. You can now buy powdered stevia as a "supplement" -- unless this scheme passes.

Similar measures are working through the UN Codex Alimentarius committee and the EU, where thesubjects of the UK are set to lose government-free vitamins as soon as 2005.

I'll close with one last peek at War on Health here on the homefront. From San Jose Mercury News:

The raid of the Burlingame firm, also known as Balco, owned by nutritionist Victor Conte, was conducted by agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the San Mateo County narcotics unit. Neither agency would discuss the raid.

No arrests were made, but agents were seen leaving with several boxes.

"We are not even acknowledging it was a search," IRS spokesman Mark Lessler said. "We are only calling it a law enforcement action."
[...]
Conte is well known for helping athletes, from 49ers and Raiders players . . . to Olympic stars and bodybuilders.

| Posted at 16:16 | PERMA-LINK |

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