Sen. John McCain has introduced a bill to give the FDA broader regulatory control over the manufacture, sale, and use of nutritional supplements.
The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 would require registration and extensive reporting by any business engaged in “manufacturing, packaging, holding, distributing, labeling, or licensing” of supplements. This includes everyone from large manufacturers to people who sell multilevel products out of their homes. Failure to comply would be a violation of the law.
This bill would also make it easier for the FDA to remove supplements from the market. A list of “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” would be prepared, and if a nutrient didn’t make the list, it would be banned. It would also be easier for the FDA to outlaw any supplement with even a suspicion of potential harm. Furthermore, there are no safeguards to protect against abuses of these extensive powers—a real concern with this bureaucracy, which is openly hostile towards nutritional supplements.
Quite a few individuals and organizations are jumping on this bandwagon. After all, isn’t it all about safety and protecting the public? Wrong. Supplements are among the safest of all consumer products. The American Association of Poison Control Centers in their 2008 annual report did not attribute even one death to a nutritional supplement. Compare this to the 100,000 deaths per year caused by prescription drugs. These guys should be going after pharmaceutical companies instead of the supplement industry.
Current laws are perfectly adequate to ensure supplement safety. Let’s not invite in more unnecessary government red tape. Contact your U.S. Senators and encourage urge them to oppose the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010. To learn more and to email your Senators on this very important issue, visit anh-usa.org.
