* Crossposted from: AHEALTH
 Message about FDA regulation of supplements:
 
 -=> Quoting Pilothigh to  <=-
 Pi> From: PilotHigh@heaven.com (PilotHigh)
 Pi> Subject: FOOD SUPPLEMENTS IN DANGER!
 Pi> Newsgroups: alt.health
 Pi> Organization: None
 Pi> Message-ID: 
 Pi> Codex Alimentarius and What It Means To You
 Pi> By Jackie Buchanan
 Pi> "Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution, the
 Pi> time will come when medicine will organize itself into an
 Pi> undercover dictatorship . . . denying equal privileges. All
 Pi> such laws are un- American and despotic . . .
 Pi> -Benjamin Rush, Physician Signer, Declaration of
 Pi> Independence
 Pi> Codex Alimentarius, in simple terms, is a code of law for
 Pi> food. What it actually means to each and everyone of us is a
 Pi> threat to our health and the health of every human being on
 Pi> this planet.
 Pi> The future availability and legal status of herbs, vitamins,
 Pi> amino acids, minerals and all other supplements in the U.S.
 Pi> and throughout the world, may be determined by a committee
 Pi> made up of 146 nations called the Codex Alimentarius
 Pi> Commission, which operates in conjunction with the United
 Pi> Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO).
 Pi> It is under the guise of protecting public safety through
 Pi> the standardization of food and botanical codes that the
 Pi> commission may be a tool of the international pharmaceutical
 Pi> industry that is intent on making ALL SUPPLEMENTS -herbal or
 Pi> otherwise- available by prescription only.
 Pi> Established in 1962 for the purpose of setting international
 Pi> standards and codes for foods, the Codex Commission is over-
 Pi> whelmingly composed of German and International
 Pi> Pharmaceutical Corporations. Over 90% of the international
 Pi> organizations ALLOWED to send delegates to the meetings
 Pi> represent giant multinational pharmaceutical corporations.
 Pi> The only consumer organization is the International
 Pi> Organization of Consumer Unions.
 Pi> NEITHER THE NATURAL HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY NOR THE GENERAL
 Pi> PUBLIC HAS ANY REPRESENTATION AT THE CODEX MEETINGS.
 Pi> Spearheaded by the German pharmaceutical corporations, this
 Pi> Codex Commission plans to ban -on a worldwide basis- any
 Pi> health statement in relation to any non-prescription
 Pi> supplement, preventive, therapeutic, or otherwise. Moreover,
 Pi> any formulas which would still be available would have to
 Pi> meet the arbitrary restrictions of the Codex Commission.
 Pi> Those nations that do not comply with these restrictions are
 Pi> faced with economic sanctions.
 Pi> While researching this article, I came across a letter
 Pi> written in 1995 from Matthias Rath, MD to Chancellor Kohl
 Pi> and Members of the German Bundersag, prior to the Codex
 Pi> meeting in Bonn Germany in 1996.
 Pi> "As a physician and scientist who led the breakthrough in
 Pi> vitamin research which can eradicate heart disease, I feel
 Pi> it is incumbent upon me to address this important matter . .
 Pi> .. as I see it, the attack of the Codex Commission is a
 Pi> desperate act by the pharmaceutical companies to protect
 Pi> their world wide drug market against naturally effective and
 Pi> much more affordable supplements. Particularly disturbing is
 Pi> the role of the German pharmaceutical and chemical
 Pi> corporations within the Codex Commission. Once before in
 Pi> this century, a German pharmaceutical and chemical
 Pi> corporation, I.G. Farben, became responsible for the deaths
 Pi> of millions of people and consequently was dismantled in
 Pi> 1946 by the Nuremberg Tribunal and split into Bayer, BASF,
 Pi> and Hoechst. With the current plans of the German
 Pi> pharmaceutical companies, the predictable dimension of the
 Pi> unnecessary and premature death of millions of people is
 Pi> unavoidable. If the Codex Commission is allowed to obstruct
 Pi> the eradication of heart disease by restricting access to
 Pi> nutritional supplements, more than 12 million people
 Pi> world-wide will continue to die every year from premature
 Pi> heart attacks and strokes. Within the next generation alone,
 Pi> this would result in over 300 million premature deaths, more
 Pi> than in all the wars of mankind together . . ."
 Pi> When I first read this, I took it with a grain of salt -
 Pi> until I came across an article in Issue 14 of the
 Pi> Alternative Medicine Digest, a reprint of an article that
 Pi> originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 25,
 Pi> 1996. The headline read "They're Scientific When It Suits
 Pi> Them, But a $1.4-Billion Deal is Better than Science." The
 Pi> article opened by saying that if a study which was
 Pi> peer-reviewed by 5 independent medical experts had been
 Pi> published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
 Pi> in January 1995 as planned, American consumers with thyroid
 Pi> problems would have saved $356 million a year in drug costs.
 Pi> However, the publication of this article would have wrecked
 Pi> a $1.4-billion deal for its manufacturer, Boots Company, the
 Pi> British pharmaceuticals and drugstore chain. The study
 Pi> documented how Synthroid, which controls 84% of the US
 Pi> thyroid medication market and is used by 8 million
 Pi> Americans, works no better than 3 other lower priced drugs.
 Pi> The makers of Synthroid - first introduced in 1958 as a
 Pi> synthetic version of thyroid hormone - had never been
 Pi> required by the FDA to submit proper clinical trial data,
 Pi> like other drugs. An unpatented drug for underactive
 Pi> thyroids, Synthroid's vigorous U.S. sales have been
 Pi> protected by something as good as a patent: the presumption
 Pi> that the competing, lower-priced drugs are not
 Pi> bioequivalent, which means that they are not absorbed and
 Pi> assimilated as fast and as well as Synthroid.
 Pi> The JAMA study proved this presumption wrong and it was
 Pi> about to call an end to Synthroid's free market run. Even
 Pi> worse, the study would have jeopardized Boots' $1.4 billion
 Pi> buy-out by Germany's BASF-AG. How did the study's sponsor,
 Pi> which has invested $250,000 to finance the research feel
 Pi> about it? It was the sponsor itself -- none other than Boots
 Pi> that did everything to discredit the study and block its
 Pi> publication. Quite clearly, scientific evidence takes a
 Pi> backseat to preserving the competitive edge.
 Pi> Another more recent web-site written from a Canadian point
 Pi> of view about how Codex will affect Canada goes on to state:
 Pi> In October, 1996, Codex met in Bonn, Germany to make radical
 Pi> changes in the rules governing dietary supplements for
 Pi> member nations. The proposals of greatest concern were those
 Pi> made by the German delegation (see the proposed Draft
 Pi> Guidelines for Dietary Supplements) and is being sponsored
 Pi> by Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. These are the three drug
 Pi> companies formed when the Nuremberg War Trials disbanded IG
 Pi> Farben, manufacturer of the poison gas used in Nazi
 Pi> concentration camps. This is not the first time that the UN
 Pi> has been linked closely with Nazi war criminals. Ostensibly,
 Pi> their purpose is " . . .to create a set of international
 Pi> standards to guide the world's growing food industry and to
 Pi> protect the health of consumers.
 Pi> Can reports from 4 different, totally unrelated sources, be
 Pi> ignored? I think not!
 Pi> The pharmaceutical company backed proposals call for the
 Pi> following:
 Pi> 1. No vitamin, mineral, herb, etc., can be sold for
 Pi> prophylactic (preventative) or therapeutic reasons.
 Pi> 2. Natural remedies can be sold as food but they must not
 Pi> exceed the potency (dosage) levels set by the commission.
 Pi> This means that consumer access to dietary supplements will
 Pi> be limited to the RDA dosage as a maximum limit for vitamins
 Pi> (Vitamin C - 60 mg. Vitamin E - 15 mg., etc.) Supplements
 Pi> without an RDA (e.g. coenzyme Q10) would be illegal to sell
 Pi> because they would all become drugs.
 Pi> 3. Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become
 Pi> binding, eliminating the escape clause within the General
 Pi> Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that allows a nation
 Pi> to set its own standards. This applies to all member
 Pi> countries of the UN. Any nation that does not accept these
 Pi> new standards will be heavily fined by the World Trade
 Pi> Organization (WTO) creating the potential for crippling
 Pi> entire sectors of that nation's economy.
 Pi> 4. All new supplements would be banned unless they go
 Pi> through the Codex approval process. Five steps have already
 Pi> been taken in the Codex process over the past few years.
 Pi> Remember Canadian Bill C-7 which was passed eventually in
 Pi> Canada as C-8? The similarity of the process, the secrecy,
 Pi> and the wording between the Codex proposals and the Canadian
 Pi> laws is uncanny. Voting in favor of adopting the German
 Pi> proposals has been overwhelming (16 for 2 against in the
 Pi> most recent vote). The Codex process is now at Step Five -
 Pi> formalization and debate concerning the specific features.
 Pi> In two years, Codex could jump from Step 5 to Step 8 to
 Pi> finalize these restrictions.
 Pi> In the U.S., the FDA has already tried to use guerrilla
 Pi> tactics to stop the use of these supplements. The first time
 Pi> I became totally aware of their horrendous practices was in
 Pi> the case of ESSIAC, the herbal formula that had been
 Pi> researched since the 1920's with excellent results in
 Pi> curing, yes I said curing, cancer. Fortunately, once their
 Pi> tactics came to light, a nation-wide non-violent revolution
 Pi> took place resulting in millions who were appalled at the
 Pi> tactics, writing letters and calling their congressmen and
 Pi> the FDA. The end result, ESSIAC is now widely available in
 Pi> many forms. Even Respirin, the drug company in Canada who
 Pi> owned the rights to the formula has started producing it and
 Pi> selling it via magazine ads and in health food stores. All
 Pi> of this took place in 1989-1990.
 Pi> In 1992, the FDA raided the Tahoma Clinic in Kent,
 Pi> Washington. The FDA alleged that Dr. Wright, MD was engaged
 Pi> in the commerce of foreign labeled injectable "drugs" (which
 Pi> were actually vitamins). This action interfaced with FDA
 Pi> raids of 17 health food stores in Texas and others in
 Pi> Oklahoma, supplement manufacturing facilities in California,
 Pi> Oregon, and Washington, and other nutritionally-oriented
 Pi> medical doctors across the US. Again, there was a national
 Pi> call to action of everyone interested in preserving their
 Pi> rights to make their own choices in health care. Letters
 Pi> were mailed and faxed to the White House by the millions and
 Pi> once again, the FDA was forced to back off. At this same
 Pi> time Bill H.R. 3642/S2135 was in committee and being
 Pi> reviewed prior to voting it into law. This bill would have
 Pi> given the FDA the power to put the health food and dietary
 Pi> supplement industry out of business. It would have also
 Pi> given them the power to legally conduct warrantless
 Pi> searches, seize and embargo products and levy heavy fines
 Pi> ($250,000 on individuals and $1,000,000 on companies)
 Pi> without a trial. Again, the people of the United States took
 Pi> action and through a powerful campaign whereby they voiced
 Pi> their opinions, another small battle was won for freedom of
 Pi> choice!
 Pi> In 1995, the FDA attempted to quietly but quickly do away
 Pi> with the use of any type of electronic instrumentation (not
 Pi> already approved) for use in diagnosing, tracking, or
 Pi> treating illness. This would have affected many doctors,
 Pi> dentists, osteopathic physicians, chiropractors, etc.
 Pi> Fortunately, they banded together, got their scientific
 Pi> studies and documentation together and, after a long hard
 Pi> struggle, managed to hold their ground and prevent the FDA
 Pi> and other interested parties (pharmaceutical companies and
 Pi> medical practitioners who felt that only the usual methods
 Pi> of treatment, i.e., surgery and drugs should be allowed)
 Pi> from getting their way.
 Pi> Now, here we are in 1997 and BY ALL APPEARANCES, the FDA has
 Pi> ceased their efforts to take away our rights to make our own
 Pi> choices about healthcare. Their policy with regard to the
 Pi> Codex standards is stated in the Federal Register of October
 Pi> 11, 1995 - FDA Policy on Standards, which states:
 Pi> "It is the intent of this policy to enable the FDA to
 Pi> continue to participate in international standards
 Pi> activities that assist it in implementing statutory
 Pi> provisions . . .
 Pi> and
 Pi> "The development of an international standard that achieves
 Pi> the agency's public objectives is generally, but not always,
 Pi> given a higher priority than the development of a domestic
 Pi> standard . . .
 Pi> and
 Pi> "Where a relevant international standard exists, or
 Pi> completion is imminent, it will generally be used in
 Pi> preference to a domestic standard . . .
 Pi> In considering the above statements about their intentions
 Pi> coupled with their past tactics as well as their continuing
 Pi> policy of ignoring the public's wishes in protecting health
 Pi> freedom, a public outcry against the Codex is again called
 Pi> for. I urge you to educate yourselves to what is really
 Pi> going on here. Most of the information can be found on the
 Pi> Web. In the past 4 months, I have found only one small
 Pi> article about this issue, tucked away in the back pages of
 Pi> Issue 18 of the Alternative Medicine Digest which is on the
 Pi> newsstands now.
 Pi> If the German and Canadian proposals are passed, it would
 Pi> constitute an effective end run by the pharmaceutical
 Pi> companies around the medical rights of Americans. They
 Pi> wouldn't dare attempt to do this in the U.S. because there
 Pi> would be such a public uproar
 Pi> it would never pass through congress. However, by taking the
 Pi> stance that they have, the FDA WILL ACCOMPLISH ITS GOALS BY
 Pi> LETTING CODEX DO ITS UNACCEPTABLE DIRTY WORK. The
 Pi> pharmaceutical companies are planning a global takeover of
 Pi> the vitamin-herb industry and within a few short years, they
 Pi> will have succeeded by pushing competitors out of the field.
 Pi> They are planning to do it very quietly and carefully
 Pi> through GATT and the Codex Commission. They will succeed if
 Pi> they are not exposed and their plan is not given national
 Pi> headlines.
 Pi> This is the last wake-up call that may be given before it is
 Pi> too late. It is of the utmost importance that everyone
 Pi> become aware and voice their displeasure with the leaders of
 Pi> their respective governmental agencies. In the U.S., it is
 Pi> imperative that everyone call and write to their local
 Pi> congressmen. Phone the White House. Call the FDA. Tell
 Pi> everyone you know to do the same. Call your local newspaper
 Pi> and alert them to what is really going on here. If we don't
 Pi> take action now, our freedom to choose will be taken away
 Pi> without most of us even being aware that it had happened!
 Pi> President Bill Clinton,
 Pi> The White House, Washington, DC 20500
 Pi> Phone: 202-205-5372 Fax: 202-260-8957
 Pi> E-mail: president@Whitehouse.gov
 Pi> Dr. Elizabeth Yetley, Director
 Pi> Office of SpecialNutritionals, HFS-45
 Pi> US Food and Drug Administration
 Pi> 200 C Street S.W. Washington, DC 20204, USA
 Pi> 202-205-4168 FAX: 202-205-5295
 Pi> E-mail: eyetley@bangate.fda.gov
 Pi> * * * * * * * * * * About the author * * * * * * * * * * *
 Pi> Jackie Buchanan has 26 years experience in the medical and
 Pi> textbook publishing field. She may be reached at Buchanan
 Pi> Publishing, P.O. Box 732 Collinsville, Illinois 62234 Email
 Pi> address: gypsy@MO.NET
 Pi> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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