EU directives set to erode individual choice
The European Directives on Food Supplements and other natural health products are set to erode our freedom to take charge of our own health. Many products we acquire for balancing our nutritional needs will simply vanish from the market or will be more expensive.
Imagine having to take tens of tablets to get your "daily dose" of Vitamin C. Not only will these tablets, apparently cheaper than today's supplements, be more expensive when we compare milligrams with cents spent, they will also force us to accept ever increasing quantities of binders and fillers, because someone believes they must "protect us" from the more effective higher dose stuff.
Here is an article explaining this in clear words.
EU DIRECTIVES: THE TRUTH
New legislation from the European parliament, to be enacted in the UK shortly, is proposing to limit the dosage amounts of vitamins that are currently freely available to you without restriction. But are these directives the result of substantial cases of adverse effects or merely the lobbying of grey, shadowy figures who see their own markets being eroded by the huge public swing to natural alternatives?
When questioned on just how the new dosage levels will be calculated, representatives have stated that it will be based on scientific data, nutrient by nutrient. If the current European Recommended Daily Allowances are anything to go by this could spell disaster. Consider the ERDA for Vitamin C. This currently stands at 60mg. As Vitamin C normally only stays in the body for a few hours and the nutritionists’ recommended dose during a cold or flu is 2 grams every two hours this could mean a somewhat more expensive trip to the health shop not to mention the multitudes of tablets rattling round the insides of the sufferer. That’s just one example.
The second aspect of the legislation is that all nutrients, generic brand names or derivatives thereof, will have to go through a registration and approval line. Although this will be an expensive process for an entire range it will, in some ways, benefit the consumer as some of the more questionable products will be eliminated from the marketplace. That said, it does still leave some companies, who have already expended research and development budgets on proved and popular supplements, facing the prospect of so-called ‘scientific authorities’ deeming their product as unsuitable for the consumer, with little recourse for reversal of the decision other than legal action, which again will be a costly process.
Finally, there is the obvious factor that many health consumers will simply buy more of the same supplement to make up for lower dosages, so what is the point of all this? Whilst bulk manufacture of lower dosage supplements may, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, bring some prices down, there can be little doubt that these legislative measures will, in the main, push many product prices up, though not by the huge percentages some pessimists forecast.
Overall these legislative measures strike a blow against freedom of choice. In response to the impending legislation an organization called Alliance for natural health was formed in February 2002 initially to mount a professional scientific, legal, media and public affairs-led campaign against the passage of the EU Food Supplements Directive (‘FSD’). That campaign was deemed necessary, as an effective, pan-European and Brussels-focused, constructive strategy aimed at countering the negative implications of the FSD had yet to be mounted.
Subsequently the ANH also focused on enabling organisations, companies and individuals to pool resources and speak with one voice in a professional, rational and co-ordinated campaign. The campaign is aimed at countering not only the elements of the FSD that will dramatically reduce the availability of innovative supplements in some countries, but also the related Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive and the amendments to the Pharmaceutical Directive.
For the latest information and to join the campaign or make a donation please visit their website:
Ultimately it’s the individual who is responsible for his or her own health. If this legislation is enacted that responsibility will be eroded. In plain terms the measures spell disaster for public health and will attempt to reverse the growing trend towards natural, healthy living. Perhaps someone wants it that way?
Text from www.gandginfo.com
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday June 24 2003
updated on Tuesday July 29 2008URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/06/24/eu_directives_set_to_erode_individual_choice.htm
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