Good news amongst major natural health challenges

4th June 2010

We know it’s easy to get disheartened by the current state of things in the natural health sector when you focus on the myriad challenges, but we’re writing to let you know the good news about some recent very positive developments.

But first a little bit of bad news.

European consumers and the natural products industry are set to be big losers come the end of the transition measures of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation at the back end of 2011. The industry is reeling from the many rejections by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of health claims submitted for approval, even in the face of credible scientific evidence in their favour.  Given that there have only been two of 5 batches of claims returned, the result does not bode well for the 3 further batches to come.  Amongst the huge number of casualties have been all probiotic health claims, those relating to glucosamine on joint health and just recently all claims related to the effect of beta-glucans on the immune system!  Those that have made it through (largely for vitamins and minerals) are often somewhat toothless and very generalised—and these, at least for the time being, form the backbone of the new Article 13 list of generic claims.  The list of claims which will be all companies in the European food and natural health sector have to choose from come the end of the transition measures.  We’re not sure how this measure promotes better consumer protection (a key stated objective) given that consumers will either have to toss a coin or use their intuition to differentiate between products!

Making matters worse, this massively off-beam approach to health claims hasn’t been concocted in Europe alone.  The so-called liberal USA has been in on the act, as have Australia and Canada.  The blueprint, namely the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition and Health Claims have been internationally agreed, and it’s just Europe that’s being used as the guinea pig for implementation.  Europeans must raise havoc with their governments and elected representatives, otherwise—and be sure of this—the same system will come to roost the world over!

You can read Dr Robert Verkerk, ANH-Intl’s executive and scientific director’s report from the 1 June stakeholder’s meeting.  His slightly tongue-in-cheek journalistic style was a reflection of his deep disappointment over the way in which the European institutions are handling things.  Clearly, much more needs to be done.

The good news

Good news point 1

First is US constitutional lawyer Jonathan Emord’s seventh victory against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he represented ANH-USA and other plaintiffs.  The case upheld the First Amendment right for free speech on health claims for selenium-containing dietary supplements.  It is reassuring to see that the courts can still appreciate the lunacy of the regulators when it comes to health claims.  They have upheld that “credible scientific evidence” is enough to make a claim about a product rather than EFSA’s nigh impossible call for “causal links” to specific mechanisms of action (proving absolutely that a food or food constituent has a specified beneficial effect on health via human studies).

To put this in perspective, it took about 30 years for an adverse link to be made between smoking and lung cancer.  It’s not hard to see that the quickest way to ‘kneecap’ the natural products industry is to force it to prove causal links (requiring in every instance human clinical studies on healthy populations!) for its hugely diverse range of products.  The US selenium case is a significant win and amounts to a precedent given that a court has now decided that the FDA’s attempt to revoke a particular qualified health claim involving a serious disease is illegal.  As we said in our press release on this subject last week, this sounds the challenge to the European regulators across the pond.

The positive news from the US courts should also excite those who wish to work with us to challenge the way in which herbal medicines from non-European cultures are going to be regulated against when the transition phase of the EU’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) expires at the end of March 2011.

Good news point 2

Hot on the heels of ANH-USA (and their two further actions pending against the FDA), ANH-Europe have announced their intention to challenge the EU herbal Directive (THMPD) in the courts.

Good news point 3

ANH-Intl’s Robert Verkerk went head to head with Basil Mathioudakis, head of the food law unit at the European Commission, at the end of April over ANH-Europe and the Irish Association of Health Stores’ petition to the European Parliament (EP) on Maximum Permitted Levels.  It was a win for common sense when the EP Petitions Committee unanimously agreed to keep open the ANH's and four related petitions, that questioned how the European regulators were going about limiting maximum levels of vitamins and minerals to potentially ridiculously low levels. 

Good news point 4

The truth will always win out!  So, for many, it won’t be such a big surprise that today we’ve heard that the three scientists who authored the World Health Organization guidance document for the swine flu pandemic were in the pay of the drug companies.  The very drug companies due to profit so much from stockpiles of vaccines if governments could be persuaded to stockpile.  Once again we get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes corporate puppeteering that compromises our freedoms.  Such manipulation resulted in an estimated £1bn wasted stockpile of drugs and vaccines and officials are now attempting to unpick expensive drug contracts.  How many more worthy causes could that money have been spent on?  Using independent expertise to save the delicate natural ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico from oil emanating from BP’s deep sea drilling disaster is one that comes to mind just now, especially given the foot-dragging from BP.  But coming back to the swine flu debacle, apart from money, just how much anxiety, fear and suffering could have been avoided?

Good news point 5

Even amidst the galloping progression of corporate control, ethics and integrity still exist, as shown by the recent resignations of 2 members of the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) Steering Group for the GM dialogue.  Their departures expose the FSA for its very pro-GM stance and criticise the lack of objectivity in the steering group.  The UK’s outgoing government was very cosy with the biotech industry, so we commend the action of these members in exposing the FSA for its hidden agenda.

When events seem to be careering out of control, remember that they tend to reach a crescendo before the tipping point prevails—some of us believe that the tipping point may not be far away.  Thank you for your support, together we are stronger.

See below for some of our top news stories:  

Swine flu: BMJ investigation confirms WHO experts in pay of ‘pharma’

Given the massive overspend, was the threat of H1N1 exaggerated?

Read More

FSA steering group resignations in protest over UK government ‘pro-GM’ stand

UK FSA GM dialogue process a ‘PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry’

Read More

EFSA confirm health claim nightmare at Parma meeting

EFSA goes it’s own way despite mass resistance from food and natural health industry

Read More

Fluoride risks in volcanic ash expose incompetence of EU food safety authority

Irish campaign group VOICE issues press release over fluoride risks in volcanic ash

Read More