US legislation question

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand some literature I've gotten in the mail and from
health food stores about some proposed US legislation, and wondering if
anyone can give me insight. This is re S. 722 ("This bill would subject
nearly all vitamins, minerals, herbal products and other supplements to a
level of scrutiny that is both unwarranted and unnecessary. Products ...
would be subject to clinical evaluation using standards that are at the
complete discretion of the FDA...."), and its proposed alternative, S. 1538
("No more excuses from the Food and Drug Administration! Give the FDA the
resources it needs to implement DSHEA!"). Evidently S. 722 has some quite
nasty restrictions written into it, such as the FDA's right to withdraw any
dietary supplement for which *even one* adverse reaction is reported. (What
if they applied that standard to pharmaceuticals?)

But its proposed alternative doesn't sound great to me either. Taken from
capwiz.com/nnfa/issues/alert/?alertid=3098131&type=CO, description of that
bill begins:

"SUPPORT S. 1538

"No more excuses from the Food and Drug Administration! Give the FDA the
resources it needs to implement DSHEA!
This bill will eliminate the Food and Drug Administration's favorite excuses
that it doesn't have enought staff, money or power to regulate supplements.
The FDA has fallen short when it comes to enforcing the law."

(continues with an explanation of why food supplements are better than
drugs)

Why do we want the FDA to have more staff and more money, and why do we want
them overseeing non-pharmaceutical products? I hear so many horrible things
about that agency and their apparent collaboration with pharmaceutical
companies, that I sort of shudder at the idea of giving them more rope to
work with.

Can anyone shed more light on this for me?

Neurotically,
Shannon

[Tanya Marquette]

we dont want the FDA to be more empowered. they are already at the service of the pharmaceutical industry as
well as the allopathic lobbies. i think we would want to argue against this bill as an invasion into our privacy and
free choice, etc, etc

tanya

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Tanya,

Your thoughts so far are the same as mine. Why oh why is a health food
store passing out a pamphlet urging support of a bill that gives them
more... Sigh, maybe someone at the store can explain more to me. Sounds
fishy, tho...

Shannon
on 10/13/03 4:43 PM, tanya at tamarque@frontiernet.net wrote:

[Tanya Marquette]

some people will blindly trust anything that is packaged well--in this case it is sitting in a trusted
health food store! others think that the FDA is independent and actually supports neutral studies.
these folks may be thinking that the FDA really has the public's well being in the forefront.

so we need to educate ourselves and then others.

tanya