Proposed EU Vitamin ban banned

By Aussiegirl

Now here is a subject close to my heart, the sale of over the counter supplements, vitamins and herbs of various descriptions.
Many people, me included, rely on such substances for our health. I have an autoimmune disease which for which there really is no treatment, but I have found an effective way to control it with a wonderful naturopath and herbalist who has me on a regimen which has helped enormously. They are going to have to pry these vitamins and herbs out of my cold, dead hands.

This is an insidious law that would effectively remove most vitamin supplements from the market, or make them available only by prescription, vitamins such as C, E, boron and many other common supplements. The only way they could continue to be sold was to submit exhaustive and expensive tests and trials to prove their safety and effectiveness, which have already been proved over half a century or more of use by millions of people with virtually no problems. Compare that with the hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of people who have been harmed by prescription drugs, and yet they continue to give them to us.

I am delighted to see that this seems to have been defeated in the EU, as the next step was to introduce similar legislation in the United States. There is no earthly reason why these safe supplements and extracts of food should not be available to consumers, who are more than mature enough to treat themselves without the government's nanny interference.

Read this:

Europe Rules Out Ban on Food Supplements

A THREATENED ban on hundreds of vitamin and food supplements was declared illegal in the European Court of Justice today. The proposed ban, which would have affected up to 5,000 widely used products, was ruled "invalid" by the court's main legal adviser. The decision in Luxembourg follows a legal challenge from the British health food industry.

It means new EU safety regulations due to come into force here in August will almost certainly be scrapped.

Campaigners against the ban, including Cherie Blair's former lifestyle guru Carole Caplin, said they were "thrilled" by the ruling. The regulations would have stopped the sale of 300 "unsafe" nutrients, ranging from boron, used to help osteoporosis, to zinc picolinate, said to boost the immune system.

A third of British women and a quarter of men take food supplements in a market estimated to be worth at least 335 million a year. On the Continent, however, health food products are traditionally treated more like medicines.

The health food rules infringe basic EU principles of "legal protection, legal certainty and sound administration", said an Advocate-General at the European Court.
Although today's declaration is merely advisory, it is rare for the full court to ignore the advice of the Advocate-General. The final verdict will delivered in June.

The rules, spelled out in a Food Supplements Directive, were designed to tighten controls on the growing market in products sold under the health food heading - natural remedies, vitamin supplements and mineral plant extracts.

The directive was approved by EU governments in 2002, but manufacturers were given until 12 July this year to submit scientific dossiers proving their ingredients are safe. Once approved, the ingredients and products go on a "positive list" of substances permitted for use in health foods. The British Health Food Manufacturers Association, the National Association of Health Stores and the Alliance for Natural Health argued that the law is unnecessary and the costs of compliance would be prohibitive for many small firms.

The plans caused huge controversy in Britain - prompting a petition of more than a million signatures, a letter of protest to Tony Blair from more than 300 doctors and scientists and motions opposing the European directive law in both Houses of Parliament.