Posted on 02/04/2005 1:55:31 PM PST by FeeinTennessee
Your right to choose your vitamin, mineral and other supplements may end in June-August of this year (2005).
After that U.S. supplements will be defined and controlled by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (Food Code) is setting the supplement standards for all countries in the WTO. They will be enforced by the WTO and will over ride U.S. laws. The U.S. President and Congress agreed to this take-over when the WTO Treaty was signed. Violations are punished by WTO trade sanctions. CODEX drastically restricts vitamins, minerals, herbs and other supplements. CODEX met secretly in November, 2004 and finalized "Step 8 (the final stage)" to begin implementation in June, 2005.
The CODE includes:
(1) No supplement can be sold for preventive or therapeutic use. (2) Any potency higher than RDA (minimal strength) is a "drug" requiring a prescription and must be produced by drug companies. Over 5000 safe items now in health stores will be banned, terminating health stores as we now know them. (3) CODEX regulations become binding internationally. (Already implemented in Europe.) (4) New supplements are banned unless given very expensive CODEX testing and approval. CODEX now applies to Norway and Germany, among others, where zinc tablets rose from $4 per bottle to $52. Echinacea (an ancient immune-enhancement herb) rose from $14 to $153 (both examples are now allowed by prescription only). They are now "drugs". Vitamin C above 200 mg, niacin above 32 mg, and vitamin B6 above 4 mg-all are banned over-the-counter as drugs. No amino acids (arginine, lysine, carnitine, etc. (these are essential amino acids!), essential fatty acids (omegas 3, 6, 9, etc.), or other essential supplements such as DMEA, DHEA, CoQ10, MSM, beta-carotene, etc. are allowed.
The CODEX rules are not based on real science. They are made by a few people meeting in secret (see web sites below), not necessarily scientists. In 1993 the FDA and drug corporations tried to put all supplements under restriction and prescription. But over 4 million Americans told Congress and the President to protect their freedom of choice on health supplements. This successful outcry resulted in the DSHEA Law (pronounced DeeShay) was passed in 1994, and DSHEA protects YOUR freedom of choice on health supplements. But this will be over ruled by CODEX and the World Trade Organization.
Virtually nothing about it has been in the media. What the drug corporations have failed to do through Congress they have gotten by sneak attack through CODEX with the help of a silent media. What can be done at this late hour?
(1) Spread the word as much as possible. Inform yourselves fully at www.ahha.org, www.iahf.com, and www.alliance-natural-health.org.
There is power in making phone calls and sending faxes and mailings (or fed x ing) to your Congressional Representatives and Senators. Don t be afraid to contact those who are NOT your representative as well as those that are. Volume of contact is key. If you use email, please use the email form on the individual s website as I ve been told that has more impact.
Senator s: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm Congress: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ President/VP: Phone: (202) 456-1414 Fax: (202) 456-2461 (2) Oppose bills S.722 and H.R.3377. These support the CODEX restrictions with U.S. laws, changing the DSHEA law. Tell your Government that you oppose S. 722 (the "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003"), which will limit my freedom to make my own health care choices with the responsible use of dietary supplements. Tell them that S. 722 unnecessarily expands the authority of the Food and Drug Administration, while offering no more protection for consumers than is already granted under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.
(3) Let them know you Support the sovereignty of the U.S. Constitution over CODEX, etc. support
(4) Express your wishes to the President, Senators and Representatives (They got us into this!) ASAP.
(5) Contact all health oriented groups, clubs, friends that can get their members to inform the government that US citizens want to have control over their own supplement use. DO NOT LET ANYONE CONVINCE YOU THAT S.722 IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD UNLESS YOU THINK PRESCRIPTION ZINC TABLETS FOR $53.00 IS A GOOD THING (AND IT S NOT!).
(6) Check out the British Alliance for Natural Health (see web site above) at www.alliance-natural-health.org . They are challenging this in court and need donations. Please see their website. They need help financially, having carried the fight effectively for everyone. CODEX and the FDA wish to protect us by controlling supplements in the same way they do prescription drugs.
A study of the latter by three medical scientists was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, April 15, 1998-Vol. 279, No.15, p. 1200. Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR's) was found to be extremely high." Covering 30 years (1966 to 1996) it was found that in the U.S. an average of 106,000 hospitalized patients per year (290 per day)! die from ADR's and 2,200,000 need more hospitalization for recovery. These were FDA approved drugs, properly administered by competent professionals in hospitals--none were considered malpractice. This is the number four cause of death in the U.S. When combined, these account for 7% of all hospitalized patients. This is equivalent to a 9-11 attack every ten days. If this is the record of safety the why add more products under this umbrella as they obviously are not able to provide safe products look at the recently pulled VIOXX as an example.
Supplements have a strong safety record. Open availability of supplements promotes health. There are very few fatalities from supplements or the news would be on every front page. There is no need for more FDA control of supplements than is already in place, which is substantial. The FDA has control over supplements, this is designed to give them MORE control and allow Pharmaceutical companies to PROFIT. Instead of drastically restricting supplements, why doesn't the FDA better control and restrict the extremely dangerous pharmaceutical drugs which are now killing us at the rate of a major airline crash per day?
Please share this with everyone you know and all the groups you are on.
Thank you.
So this is quasi ISO 9001:2000 standarding that has is has been fed to everyone for the past 12 years?
Thank you for posting the informative articles from Quackwatch. After reading them I fervently hope these "health food" stores, vitamins come under some kind of control!
By the way read the article on the GNC/health food store workers at Quackwatch. It's a hoot.
I do agree we should not be under the laws of the UN/EU tho.
bttt
I don't doubt that a lot of that stuff is junk, but not all. It's a matter of freedom.
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