Under the Gun When your back is to the wall, it's good to have options.
And we now have an option.
In the e-Alert "The Fix Is In" (7/22/03) I told you about the senate bill (S. 722) designed to broadly expand the FDA's authority to control the dietary supplement market. If passed, this bill could seriously inhibit your freedom to make your own health care decisions.
But now a new bill has been introduced in the Senate (S. 1538), which challenges the need for S. 722, while strengthening the 1994 legislation that was specifically designed to help protect the supplement industry from unnecessary constraints in the first place.
These two bills are expected be voted on soon, so now is the time to let our congressmen know that S. 1538 is the voice of reason in the dietary supplement debate.
If passed in its current form, S. 722 (titled "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003") will give the FDA sweeping new powers.
For instance, under S. 722, FDA officials would have the ability to remove an entire class of supplements from the market in response to the filing of only one serious adverse reaction complaint - even if the complaint was filed by someone who used the supplement in contradiction to the instructions and warnings of the manufacturer.
In such a case, supplement makers would then be required to demonstrate the safety of their products; a process that would put a heavy financial burden on accused manufacturers - heavy enough to drive some out of business. For those supplements that did reach the evaluation stage, the FDA would set the standards for the evaluations and then determine if the standards were met. In effect, the FDA would act as prosecutor, judge, and jury, while accused manufacturers would be forced to pay the bill against a stacked deck.
The sponsor of S. 722 - Senator Dick Durbin - says his bill will "save lives and restore America's confidence in the use of dietary supplements."
First: With dietary supplement sales at an all time high, American's are displaying a growing confidence in their use of supplements, not a lack of it. And second: It's simply naïve to think that additional regulations will save lives when the current regulations that promise safety for prescription drug users are powerless to prevent thousands of drug-related deaths every year.
Think of S. 722 is a staging area from which the FDA will have the opportunity to dismantle the dietary supplement freedom that we've enjoyed for almost a decade under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
In a nutshell, DSHEA classifies and regulates dietary supplements as food. Under DSHEA, the FDA and the FTC regulate the manufacturing of supplements, as well as labeling and advertising. And yet critics of DSHEA would have you believe that the act doesn't regulate supplements at all. What they're really saying is that DSHEA doesn't regulate supplements in the same way that drugs are regulated. In fact, DSHEA has been a boon for the supplement industry, by not hampering the manufacture of supplements with unnecessary regulations.
This is where the new Senate Bill 1538 comes in. Titled "DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act," S. 1538 was introduced by senators Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch to help strengthen DSHEA, making S. 722 irrelevant.
Under S. 1538, the FDA would receive additional funding to ensure that DSHEA is fully carried out, as originally intended. The new bill also increases funding for dietary supplement research and consumer information through the National Institutes of Health.
As many e-Alert readers are aware, I'm no fan of regulations and I don't believe that the best way to solve problems is to throw money at them. But I do believe that DSHEA provides more than enough regulation of dietary supplements. Therefore, S. 1538 offers a reasonable and responsible alternative to the completely unnecessary extremes of S. 722.
Predicting how and when Congress might act is a longer shot than predicting the stock market. But it appears that both S. 722 and S. 1538 may come before the Senate for a vote in the next few weeks. So the time to act is now. I strongly urge you to join me in taking a moment to send a brief letter or e-mail to your Senators. (You can easily find Congressional street addresses and e-mail addresses at congress.org just by entering your zip code. We've heard that snail mail gets more attention from our public servants than e-mail.)
Tell your Senators that you strongly support S. 1538 ("DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act") which will provide all the funding necessary to insure consumer protection under DSHEA. Tell them you hope they'll support S. 1538, while also opposing S. 722 ("Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003"), which will only limit our freedom to make our own health care choices with the responsible use of dietary supplements.
And please ask your friends and family to help get the word out about these two important bills. Nothing less than the future of our health care freedom is at stake.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson Health Sciences Institute
Sources:
"The DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act" Senate Bill 1538, 108th Congress, 1st Session, thomas.loc.gov "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003" Senate Bill 722, 108th Congress, 1st Session, thomas.loc.gov "Durbin Moves to Prevent Sale of Dangerous Dietary Supplements like Ephedra ' Dick Durbin Press Release, 3/26/03, durbin.senate.gov "FDA Moving to Dismantle DSHEA ' Smart Publications, 4/25/03, smart-publications.com "An Urgent Call to Action: Your Right to Use Nutritional Supplements is in Jeopardy ' Julian Whitaker, M.D., 7/17/03, drwhitaker.com "Don't Let Congress Overturn the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994" Whole Foods, wholefoods.com "Before and After DSHEA" Council for Responsible Nutrition, crnusa.org |
