Major Confrontation Brewing Between Big Pharma and Natural Health Movement

From: john (nospamoridiotss_at_vaccine.con)
Date: 01/26/05 

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 17:36:18 +0000 (UTC)

Major Confrontation Brewing Between Big Pharma and Natural Health Movement

            In a strange twist of fate, 2005 has turned out to be the year
that the long running battle between big pharma and the entire natural
health movement clashes on the world stage. Insidious plans were set in
motion many years ago to severely restrict the sale of nutritional
supplements worldwide using a two-pronged attack in the form of the EU Food
Supplements Directive (FSD) and Codex Alimentarius.

The FSD was passed into law in June 2002 and is scheduled to go into effect
in August 2005. The only obstacle that stands between its final
implementation is a pending lawsuit brought by the Alliance For Natural
Health based in the UK. If they aren't successful in overturning the
Directive in court, it will impact all 25 EU member nations and all the
countries that do business with the EU.

Many of you may wonder why what happens in Europe should concern us here in
the US. This is where the second pronged attack in the form of Codex comes
into play. After a critical meeting with all member nations in Bonn, Germany
in early November 2004, Codex came within one step of ratifying of an
international agreement to harmonize dietary supplements worldwide. All that
's left to resolve is what the "allowable potency levels" of vitamins and
minerals will be. This will be decided in a workshop organized by the World
Health Organization (WHO) in May. The reason why supplement consumers in the
US need to be concerned is because the EU is going to try and use what they'
ve established as "safe upper limits" for the EU Food Supplements Directive
as the template for Codex standards. In the minds of these big power
players, why would they reinvent the wheel? The problem is the US has one
vote verses all the votes of the European Union, which is heavily influenced
and financed by big pharma.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who seriously distrusts WHO to decide
allowable potency levels for vitamins and minerals? In my opinion this
organization should be tried for crimes against humanity for the wholesale
deaths they've caused worldwide through their mass vaccination programs.
These are the kind of dark forces we're up against and that's why it's
imperative that ALL of us who enjoy our supplements and distrust
pharmaceutical drugs should take a firm stand now before these Gestapo
tactics are allowed to be implemented.

The next Codex meeting convenes in July 2005 in Rome, Italy and many believe
that a ratified agreement will come out of this meeting. Despite all the
double talk from some health food industry trade associations and the FDA,
our supplement laws are in grave danger of being replaced with Codex
standards. The FDA has even gone on record in 1997 stating that US laws will
be harmonized to Codex.

We need to flood Senate and Congress with letters of protest demanding that
they protect DSHEA. We also need to tell our representatives that we refuse
to allow US laws to be replaced by Codex standards. Our national sovereignty
is at stake; Codex represents just one of many steps that are being taken to
internationalize the United States. If we can't win on this issue, how will
we be able to win on any other issues dealing with international law? This
is the biggest attack ever launched by big pharma to wipe out their
competition and completely control our access to safe, high potency dietary
supplements. Instead of being blatantly obvious about it though, they are
operating in stealth mode in foreign countries where few in the US take
notice of their nefarious deeds.

While we have a major uphill battle ahead of us, some serious cracks are
beginning to show in the pharmaceutical empire. As these powerful world
bodies work relentlessly to restrict our free access to life saving
supplements in 2005, God seems to be allowing this battle to come to a
climactic head. Don't you find it rather ironic that at the same time the
pharmaceutical industry has upped the ante, their entire industry is under
the gun like never before since their 100-year reign of terror began? Vioxx
has been pulled from the market, at least five other drugs are listed as
dangerously risky, warnings are now required on antidepressant drugs due the
possibility of suicidal tendencies, whistleblowers are coming forward from
the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and major journals like the New England
Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association
exposing the corruption and collusion going on. I could spend an entire
issue of CRUSADOR just covering the corruption and lies that are now being
exposed.

 This is all positive news. As the sleeping masses awaken and start calling
pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, and outdated medical treatments into
question, the better chance we'll have at winning this battle. All it takes
to pierce the darkness is the light of truth. With truth on our side, there'
s nothing that these world bodies and world leaders will be able to do to
hold us back from eventually winning. We need to unite together with one
voice now before it's too late.

Greg Ciola

Editor

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http://www.rense.com/general62/case.htm

Last-Ditch Bid To Stop
UK Ban On Supplements
By Geoffrey Lean and Steve Bloomfield
The Independent - UK
1-24-5

Consumers and producers of popular vitamin and mineral supplements used by
thousands every day will this week make a last-ditch attempt to prevent a
European Union directive from banning them.

Campaigners claim products from well-known brands including Holland and
Barrett, Solgar and Viridian will be removed from the shelves unless they
are reformulated.

The campaign against the directive has enlisted the help of a number of
high-profile supporters, including Cherie Blair's former lifestyle adviser
Carole Caplin and the actress Jenny Seagrove. Dame Judi Dench and Bianca
Jagger are also backing the campaign.

A third of women and a quarter of men take health food supplements in the UK
and the market is thought to be worth at least £350m a year.

The EU directive lists only 28 vitamins and minerals, and 112 sources from
which they were derived for use in food supplements, which can be sold
legally after it comes into force on 1 August. It would threaten up to 5,000
products, containing more than 200 nutrients, which campaigners claim have
been used safely in specialist supplements for many years.

Some large chains, such as Boots, have already reformulated their products
to meet the new EU rules and say their customers will see no difference when
the directive comes into force. Also, manufacturers who submit detailed
scientific dossiers by July this year that prove their ingredients are safe
will still be allowed to sell their products.

Campaigners say the cost on suppliers could force smaller firms into
bankruptcy. Few of the small health food companies can manage the expense -
up to £250,000 for each ingredient - and only a handful of safety dossiers
are being prepared.

Consumers for Health Choice, who have been leading the campaign against the
directive, said that products under threat include Solgar Prenatal
Nutrients, which contain nutrient sources not on the EU's list, and Holland
and Barrett's ABC Plus, which has a high dose of vitamin C.

A court case brought by the National Association of Health Stores and the
British Health Foods Manufacturers Association will argue on Tuesday that
Brussels is exceeding its powers by imposing a blanket ban. It is being
contested by the EU's institutions and by the governments of Greece and
Portugal as well as Britain.

On the same day, the Conservatives, who say the measure will outlaw
virtually every popular multi-vitamin pill sold in the country, will call in
the Commons for the ban to be scrapped.

Ministers are concerned that growing public opposition to the ban will
affect the referendum on the European Constitution, due after the general
election.

Peter Hain, the Leader of the House of Commons, has called it "unnecessary
interference" by Brussels, and other ministers have privately expressed
sympathy with the protesters. But the Government is still pressing ahead
with the ban, and will defend it in the European Court case.

Some reports suggest that some products could cause problems in high doses,
but a major body of research demonstrates that deficiencies in minerals and
vitamins, levels of which are falling in modern diets, can cause heart
disease, osteoporosis, cancer and other conditions.

A recent study published by the American Medical Association shows that
taking some mineral and vitamin pills reduces the risk of contracting cancer
and cardiovascular disease, and protects foetuses.

The ban, the first of a series of EU measures designed to outlaw a range of
alternative medicines, is contained in the Food Supplements Directive,
passed in 2002 to harmonise the trade in supplements between EU member
states and after lobbying from the pharmaceutical industry.

Sue Croft, a spokeswoman for Consumers for Health Choice, said: "If this
directive comes into force it will affect the lives of millions. To have
these supplements removed and to put more strain on the NHS is nothing short
of a crime. At the election we will be targeting those MPs who do not vote
to stop this."

A spokeswoman for Boots, however, which has a third of the vitamin
supplement market, said the company had been gradually reducing the level of
vitamins and minerals in own-brand supplements in line with new safety
levels.

"Consumers won't see a huge change," a spokeswoman said. "We fully support
this EU directive."

©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

http://news.independent.co.uk/

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From: Alliance for Natural Health
To: info@thehealthcrusader.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 12:12 PM
Subject: EU BAN IS AS TRANSPARENT AS A BLACK BOX

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 25 January 2005

EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE ADVOCATE GENERAL DESCRIBES VITAMIN AND MINERAL BAN
"AS TRANSPARENT AS A BLACK BOX"
UK GOVERNMENT DECIDES NOT TO ATTEND COURT HEARING TO MAKE ITS OBJECTIONS TO
THE CHALLENGE
The Alliance for Natural Health today presented its oral submission to the
European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in its landmark case challenging the
ban in the EU Food Supplements Directive on 75% of vitamin and mineral forms
currently sold in the EU market.

Opposing oral submissions were made by the European Commission, the Council
of Ministers, the European Parliament and only one EU Member State, Greece.

UK Government does not present its objections to the challenge.
Interestingly, neither the UK government nor Portugal attended to present
oral arguments despite having filed Written Observations in the case. This
means that none of the major EU countries felt the need to oppose the ANH's
application for a declaration that the ban in the Directive was unlawful.

David Hinde Solicitor and ANH Legal Director said:

"Given the vigour with which the UK government resisted this application at
the Judicial Review stage, it was extraordinary it did not now think the
issue sufficiently important to warrant being represented at the ECJ to make
oral submissions. The question inevitably arises whether this signifies a
change of attitude on their part and a retreat from their previously bullish
position about the legality of the Directive."
Paul Lasok QC, a world leading expert on EU law, representing the ANH opened
the proceedings and systematically undermined the legal and scientific basis
of the Directive, highlighting contradictions between various arguments put
forward by the key bodies involved in developing the Directive, namely the
European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

When asked by Judge Lenaerts as to the origin of the positive list which
appeared to have been derived from an old list produced by the European
Commission, and so omitted a vast array of nutrients that can normally be
found in food, Mr Lasok responded:

"The list was put together without adding, without subtracting and without
thinking."
Advocate General Geelhoed, the senior judge at today's hearing, appeared to
be baffled by the procedure for adding nutrients to the positive list, which
he described:

"As transparent as a black box."
Dr Robert Verkerk, executive director of the ANH said after the hearing:

"It was remarkable that the vast majority of points that we had gone to
great length to show the Court were not countered in any effective way by
the opposing parties. The Commission, the Council and the Parliament were
not able to give any adequate scientific explanations for why so many forms
of vitamins and minerals that naturally occur in foods could be banned
across the EU."
Final judgement expected in June 2005
The Advocate General announced that he would deliver his opinion on 5 April
2005, while the Court is expected to give its judgment in June, shortly
before the ban would otherwise be set to come into effect on 1 August 2005.

ENDS

For enquiries and further information contact:

Alliance for Natural Health
www.alliance-natural-health.org

David C. Hinde, Solicitor, Legal Director
Tel: 0207 738 1640
Mobile: 07958 548 186
E-mail: davidh@alliance-natural-health.org

Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive Director
Tel: 01252 371 275
Mobile: 0771 484 7225
E-mail: robv@alliance-natural-health.org

IKON Associates
(PR for the Alliance for Natural Health)

Adrian Shaw
Tel: 01483 535102
Mobile: 0797 9900733
E-mail: adrian@ikonassociates.com

Notes for editors:

The Alliance for Natural Health is a Europe-wide association of
manufacturers, distributors, retailers, consumers and complimentary
practitioners who have an interest in food supplements. More information,
including details of members, will be found at
www.alliance-natural-health.org

Good science and good law underpin all of the ANH's work, and the scientific
reports produced by the ANH are endorsed by many of the world's leading
doctors and scientists working in the field of nutrition.

If the ban on vitamins and minerals is implemented there is much at stake:

Over 5000 products will disappear from the shelves of UK health stores as a
result of the ban removing access to over 300 vitamin and mineral
ingredients (out of a total of 420). These include amongst others the main
natural forms of Vitamin E, many forms of vitamin C and MSM and minerals
such as vanadium, silicon and boron, all being products which millions of
consumers choose to take as part of their regular health regime and have
done so without any ill effects for many years.
An individual's freedom of choice to take safe natural health products will
be removed - 40% of the UK's population take vitamins and minerals.
Products are to be banned with absolutely no scientific justification. Many
of the world's leading scientific and medical experts in nutrition support
this.

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