Durbin, Clinton, Feinstein, & Schumer Sponsoring Bill
Which Yanks Nutritional Supplements
By Julian Whitaker, MD
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/billyanksnutritionalsupplements08sep03.shtml
Sept. 8, 2003
An Urgent Call to Action: Your
Right to Use Nutritional Supplements Is in Jeopardy
We need to take action and we need to take action now. There
is a movement in Congress to restrict your freedom to use nutritional supplements,
destroy the nutritional supplement industry and, in the process, endanger
your health.
Here is the problem. Reacting to the hysteria over ephedra,
Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) brought forth Senate Bill
722, cosponsored by Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), which
gives unprecedented power to the FDA to remove nutritional supplements from
the market. Here's how.
A Bill With Chilling Implications
The bill calls for a reporting system for adverse reactions
to nutritional supplements. The FDA is empowered to act on a single adverse
reaction report and immediately take the product off the market while it
is being investigated. In addition, it could force the manufacturer to undergo
prohibitively costly safety analyses of the product, similar to what is
required for new drugs.
Here's a scenario; Mrs. Jones in Somewhere, USA, is taking
a supplement containing vitamin C. One afternoon she has some diarrhea.
She faints, falls in her bathroom, hits her head and is hospitalized with
a head injury. Believe it or not, an adverse reaction could be pinned on
vitamin C. Based upon this single event, the FDA could, at its discretion,
move to restrict sales of vitamin C throughout the entire country until
an investigation proves that vitamin C did not cause Mrs. Jones' problems.
Don't Believe the Smoke Screen of "Safety"
The bill also gives the FDA license to require supplement
manufacturers to submit safety information that would cost hundreds of millions
of dollars, patterned on regulations required for new drugs. This is absurd.
New drugs need rigorous safety testing because they are compounds that have
never been ingested by human beings. The ubiquitous use and long history
of safety of nutritional supplements is apparently irrelevant to the sponsors
of this bill.
The nutritional supplement industry arguably has the best
product safety record of any industry in the country. According to Congressman
Dan Burton (RIN), a maximum of 16 deaths were attributed to a nutritional
supplement last year. (Excessive doses of ephedra were the suspect in the
majority of these cases and the supplement link was definitively proven
in only a few of them.) Meanwhile, the FDA turns a blind eye to
the 106,000 deaths from adverse effects of prescription drugs and the tens
of thousands of deaths from aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs that
occur every year.
This isn't about safety. It's about control.
This bill is a good example of government irrationality and
it Will harm you.
According to a 2002 report by Washington, DC based Council
for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the use of antioxidants, folic acid, calcium,
zinc and other nutritional supplements could reduce the incidence of neural
tube birth defects by 70 percent, hip fractures by at least 20 percent and
sick days caused by infectious diseases by 50 percent. Heart disease, stroke,
cataracts, macular degeneration, some types of cancer; nutritional supplements
have been shown to prevent or delay all these conditions and others. Furthermore,
CRN reports that by delaying the onset of cardiovascular disease, stroke
and hip fracture alone, nutritional therapies could potentially save $89
billion a year in healthcare costs!
Yet S.B. 722 would empower the FDA to dismantle the supplement
industry and prevent you from receiving the many benefits that only nutritional
supplements can deliver.
You Can Make a Difference
The only way to stop this bill is for us to flood our elected
representatives with so many emails, faxes and phone calls that they will
be forced to say no to the powerful interests that are behind this movement.
Don't underestimate the power of such a grassroots movement.
Ten years ago, Health & Healing readers were instrumental in rallying
the passing of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
Millions of letters were written to our representatives and senators in
support of this legislation. It generated more letters than any other issue
in US history. Because of DSHEA, which reduced the FDA's power to block
the production, sale, and use of natural substances, we have free access
to herbs, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and other nutritional supplements.
The Bad Old Days
Some of you might remember the pre-DSHEA days when the FDA
was completely out of control. They raided the offices of nutritional physicians
like Jonathan Wright, MD, of Kent, WA - at gunpoint! They barged into manufacturing
facilities and seized natural substances such as stevia and GLA. They authorized
the removal of coenzyme Q-10 and other supplements from health food stores,
claiming they were "illegal." They refused to allow any information
on nutritional supplement labels that would help consumers make informed
choices. They mandated that many supplements now sold over the counter require
a prescription, making them more expensive and less accessible. This is
the kind of tyranny we experienced then and if you think this kind of stuff
couldn't happen again, you're wrong.
A Power Grab by the FDA
You may have read in the press that we need new laws because
there is no regulation of nutritional supplements. This is simply not true.
DSHEA gives the FDA tremendous regulatory power and, in fact, it already
has the power to pull any supplement it feels is unsafe off the market.
Yet because DSHEA also gives supplement manufacturers some
autonomy, the FDA has attempted to circumvent it from day one. This agency
fought hard against the passage of DSHEA ten years ago and, in a thinly
veiled attempt to get rid of or amend it, has refused to act responsibly
within its confines ever since.
Send a Message and Tell a Friend
Time is of the essence. S.B. 722 has recently been referred
to committee and may be tagged onto the Agriculture Appropriations Bill.
We can and must act quickly to stop this legislation.
What can you do? Send a message to your senators today asking
them to vote against S.B. 722. If you've already done so, do it again. Tell
your friends about this threat and encourage them to take action as well.
If each one of you could commit to generating just a handful of emails,
faxes or phone calls, over a million messages would descend upon Washington.
You may not realize how powerful a grassroots campaign like this can be,
but our elected officials cannot ignore something of this magnitude.
How to Contact Your Senators
The easiest way to let your senators know what you think about
5. 722 is to visit NNFA's website (http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html).
All you have to do is type in your zip code and it will address a message
to both of your senators, allow you to personalize it if desired, then send
it by e-mail or print it out for faxing. (I don't recommend sending letters
via US mail at this time because anthrax screening has slowed delivery to
a crawl.)
If you don't have access to a computer, write a short letter
identifying the bill and your position on it. Address it to The Honorable
(senator's name), United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510. You may also
call your senators' offices. You'll likely speak with staff members, but
your message will still be heard. Let them know who you are, ask them to
vote against S. 722 and be prepared to tell them why.
The US Capitol switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.
Look in the phone book for your senators' local office numbers. Staffers
can give you your senators' fax numbers, as well as other contact information.
To your health and freedom,
Julian Whitaker, MD
P.S. This isn't the only threat to health freedom lurking
on the horizon. I'll keep you inforrned on all these issues, but for now,
let's send a strong message that we're not going to take this lying down.
Voice your opinion about S.B. 722 today.
More on this story:
From: "Leslie R. Pastor" <lrpastor@optonline.net>
Date: Fri Sep 5, 2003 10:27 pm
Subject: US Senator Dick Durbin & FDA Sponsor SB722 restricting vitamin
supplement usage. Vote NO.
The FDA is at it again, aided by Senator Dick Durbin D. Ill , they want
to restrict your use of vitamin supplements, Don't let them. The following
data is from the Dove Reports:
Source: [Dove Report]: Friday September 5, 2003 http://www.white-knights911.com
"U.S. Senator Durbin is either a dupe of the drug companies or is
Illuminati. He has sponsored Senate Bill 722 (SB 722) which would give
the FDA the right to take any supplement off the shelves and would also
make it impossible to take so-called "mega-doses" of vitamins
and other supplements! Please note the article below quotes a study of
13,000 men and women in which 31% of women and 37% of men benefited significantly
from "mega-doses" of natural supplements in reducing cancer!
I'm told this is EXACTLY WHY the big Illuminati drug companies want to
restrict our ability to use natural supplements! The sicker the world's
people are, the more the drug companies make in profits and even worse,
the more malleable people are to being controlled...." [Dove Report]
For the sake of your families and your children...... act
now. Now that you have worked a lifetime they want to get rid of you....Don't
let them.
They consider 'retirees' as 'useless' eaters.....tell them where they can
go on election time. Senator Hillary for President.....think again....She
cosponsored the Bill. Imagine what she would do as your President....She
attempted to block your healthcare....She hasn't changed.
This is a bad piece of legislation.....
Dick Durbin should be defeated, removed from office, for his obscenity.
His pension should be cancelled, he should be made destitute. The FDA should
be investigated, its officials fired from office, their pensions cancelled
They are obviously working in a conspiratorial mannor in collusion with
the drug companies. They use to hang people [in the old west] from trees
for doing no less.....
All the Best,
Leslie R. Pastor
PS: Just imagine not being able to get Vitamin C: and watching
your children die of scurvy. Or not being able to get Vitamin A and watching
your children go blind. If you value your rights, now is the time to speak
up.
PPS: These 'people' are trying to 'make' and 'keep' you 'sick'...ultimately
leading to your [children's] 'death'. Co-Sponsors of the Bill:Senator Hillary
Clinton, Senator Chuck Schumer [Ask them why they would do this]
PPPS: If this kind of action continues, we the people, should
abolish the FDA. They're not protecting us, they're killing us.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.