ATS: European Union Set to Ban Nutritional Supplements, page 1
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ATS Members have flagged this thread 1 times
Topic started on 7-2-2005 @ 03:57 PM by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
The European Union seems set to severely restrict access to many nutritional supplements that an estimated 50% of European residents use every day. The campaign against this move, led by the Alliance for Natural Health, has gained the support of leading British politicians, and it is hoped that the UK government will be able to use its presidency of the EU to bring some pressure to bear.



www.alliance-natural-health.org
Original source: Daily Mail (Good Health section) 25/1/05 by Geoffrey Lean

Every day millions of us swallow vitamins, mineral supplements and alternative medicines in the well founded belief that they will benefit our health.

But in just six months, our favourite pills will be outlawed by diktat of the European Union, aided and abetted by Tony Blair's Government with a little help from the pharmaceutical industry, which sees a golden opportunity to take control of a lucrative market.



Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


This is a highly complicated issue, with ties to big industry and to the joint WHO/UN "CODEX Alimentarius" (which is an international body charged with setting global food standards, and is therefore the piece of this that should be of interest to Americans...see the second supporting link).

Probably the single most appalling fact is that the EU's "approved list" includes some controversial compounds such as sodium fluoride and caustic soda, while scores of safe, non-toxic ingredients believed to benefit health, are excluded.

To take just one example: folic acid - found in spinach - will be banned, except for the form sold by drug companies!! Adding insult to injury, some products may escape the ban, but only if they pass special tests that will cost upwards of half a million dollars per ingredient. (And guess which industry has the deepest pockets??)


Related News Links:
www.theyworkforyou.com
www.healthchoice.org.uk
www.alliance-natural-health.org


reply posted on 8-2-2005 @ 04:07 AM by arnold_vosloo
There is a lot of evidence to support this ban as malcr has said above. I found some information on the danger of high doses of vitamins

www.bbc.co.uk...

I sure that the drug companies will be celebrating this but there are important reasons for the control of health supplements as they are currently essentially exempt from regulation so you really don't know when taking them if there are any dangers. I agree with malcr about licensing costs but shouldn't you be sure that a supplement you are taking is not potentiallly lethal?


reply posted on 8-2-2005 @ 11:42 PM by Nygdan
The same site, alliance for health, is invovled in a very similiar bit, but in this other version its the World Trade Organization thats the organization, and the cited laws are from the '60s apparently.

www.abovetopsecret.com...'

"Urgent: World Trade Organization control of vitamin, mineral"

Doesn't it concern anyone that the people who are sending out alarm notices are the ones involved in the supplement industry, and that the biggest affect of any of these supposed laws is that their industry gets more regulated and that they loose money?


reply posted on 9-2-2005 @ 12:29 AM by orionthehunter
Originally from thread source by Alliance for Natural Health

There's a clue in the contents of that approved list: by and large, vitamins and minerals produced by big drug companies are on it, while ones made by small, specialist firms are not.

Another clue is provided by the fact that the big drug companies have welcomed the ban.


This is only about money and profits for the big drug companies. The drug companies can claim safety all they want but we all know it's about their bottom line. Is a new EU directive for all the folks of Europe coming soon? Guess we'll see if enough people are upset to stop this. If the directive passes, the drug companies score big on profits.

Good luck to you guys in your fight. If the drug companies succeed, I can only imagine the price of American vitamins increasing due to Europeans trying to import them. Of course the drug companies may ban imports as well. They'll use the safety concern just like American politicians are using to defend drug companies in the US from those Americans trying to import cheaper identical Canadian drugs (manufactured right here in the US). I'd be pretty upset myself if the drug companies wanted me to not take vitamins so I was sicker and would be required to take their more expensive drugs instead.

I'll add a note for the post above, the new EU directive will essentially ban the products made by almost all of the small companies unless they can afford a big stiff enormous fee to declare their product is safe. If you can't do it, then you can't sell your product anymore. Game over. End of business. Big drug company increases sales of their products. If I was a small business I would be warning the public or trying to get the message out as well. Unless you guys only want products labeled as safe from the big drug companies.


[edit on 9-2-2005 by orionthehunter]


reply posted on 29-4-2005 @ 01:11 AM by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Well, it seems its more than just the Alliance for natural Health that have reported this. Seems the EU really is trying to ban natural suppliments and vitamins, and some very famous stars are joining the effort to stop the ban.

www.indymedia.org.uk...

Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, and Phil Collins are just a few names on a list of many celebrities trying to stop the ban.

This ban is based on pure greed and hypocrisy, not any real concern for public health. Millions of people everyday take natural herbal and vitamin supplements with no ill effects. Only a small number of people really abuse them and thus get sick from taking too high of doses. By comparison, there are FAR more people who get sick from taking prescription medication sanctioned by pharmecuetical giants and the govornment. Chemical prescription drugs prescribed by the medical establishment are far more toxic, have terrible side effects, and cause more deaths and serious illness do to misuse, toxicity, or improper diagnosis than any cases of people taking natural supplements. If anything, many prescription drugs should be banned because they cause many more problems than they cure.

I take suppliments all the time, and have never gotten sick. I have no faith in modern medicine to keep me well, in fact, many times doctors have worsened problems with their medicines, which is why I no longer go to a doctor even when I am very sick. Through studying vitamins, nutrition, and natural medicine, I have in many cases successfully treated my own problems, problems doctors only worsened, misdiagnosed, or created. I have found my health to be great from taking vitamins as preventive measures, and when I do get sick, herbal therapy has not only shortened my recovery time, but I get sick far less often.

This is another example of a nanny state govornment taking away the independance and personal choice of individual citizens regarding their own health and lifestyles. They want to push people into patronizing the medical establishment, a medical establishment that cares more about money than healing, and a medical establishment I feel worsens many illnesses that people suffer from. They are taking away self suffciency and self empowerment of individuals, and this kind of tactic makes me sick.

Its very disturbing that this issue hasn't even been discussed in the mainstream media. It seems the EU, true to its nature, is keeping their activities as quiet as possible so that the general public does not have a chance to react and protest until it is too late.

www.findarticles.com...


reply posted on 29-4-2005 @ 02:41 AM by paperclip
Oh man... this talk about modern medicine screwing you over and everyone can very easily be their own doctor and know thousand of different enzymatic reactions that go on in your body, blood, brain, liver, lungs, kidneys, functioning of cells, metabolism, just by looking it up on internet or some second hand herbal book... I mean, COME ON!!! People are over-doing this "be your own doctor" fad. It is too dangerous. If curing diseases with "supplements" and "herbal" medicine was so good and easy, then why did so many people die in the past from the simplest infections and diseases?? Diseases that MODERN medicine has cured or developed a far better treatment then Vit C overdose.

That indymedia article makes it look like doctors and pharmacists have had one single mission for the past 100 years and that is "make everone more sick then they already are". Oddly enough, during the last 100 years human life span has increased, many diseases that were deadly are not deadly anymore, many infections that used to kill people now pass by with just an itch thanks to modern medicine. So, all that is crap, eh?

Doctors help people. They actually study human body properly. The medicine helps people. If you got tuberculosis and drink only tea and Vit C, you die. If you take proper medicine, imunisation, you LIVE.


If you feel a pain in your back, do you really think you KNOW all the possibilites, everything that can be the cause of that pain? Do you really think someone selling tea can tell you that? Or how about that all-time favourite "hey, I have a friend who had a pain in his back and he used *insert herb here*, I'm gonna do that too". Second hand self-diagnosis.... man....

Herbal medicine, nutrition supplements are ok as long as you are properly diagnosed and a lot of doctors do prescribe them as adjuvant to other forms of medication.

If this ban passes then people would actually go to a doctor before they buy them and that would greatly increase their lifespan, save them from their own stupidity.
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