Archive for The Law & CODEX – Page 72
Congress is at it again: those who are paid by the people are doing the people’s work. Those who are paid by Big Pharma are doing the drug companies’ dirty work. There are bills that we need to kill and bills that we need to support. This blog is a guide to the current crop of health-related bills
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. Jefferson said it so well! And we need to remind ourselves of it often. There are now bills that we have to support and bills that we must kill. Below you will find a list of the relevant bills which impact health freedom. You can read these bills for yourself by entering the bill number or a keyword or you can do the Cliff Notes version and read my summary below. In either case, it is important that you take the tools of democracy in your mouse and use our email engine to send your Congressional Delegation your strong instructions. You can write your own letter or use the one we provide.
The reason it is so important for you to take this action now (and take it again when more legislation is introduced, as it will be) is that if the pro-pharma, pro-illness industry can destroy our legal protections, DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) and FDAMA (FDA Modernization Act), then there is NOTHING at all standing in the way of our harmonization with the deadly CODEX standards and guidelines. That is what they want. We are not about to let them have it. Here are the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
HR 2352 Consumers’ Access to Health Information Act
Introduced by Ron Paul reverses the FDA’s gag action on nutrients and “permits the accurate label and labeling claims of the curative, mitigation, treatment and prevention effects of foods and dietary supplements on disease and health-related conditions”. This is a very important piece of legislation and should be supported vigorously.
The Bad:
SA 1379 attached to S 1042
Sponsored by Durbin and Feinstein would create an adverse event reporting requirement for supplements (remarkably safe, no deaths) while none exists for pharmaceuticals (remarkably dangerous, hundreds of thousands of deaths annually). It also bars the sale of stimulants on military bases except caffeine containing liquids! Oppose this bill.
S 3 Protecting America in the War on Terror Act of 2005
Introduced by Gregg, First, Sessions, Dewine, Allen, Santorrum, McConnell and Dement is filled with dangerous and harmful provisions including the removal of meaningful restitution for persons harmed by vaccines and shameless immense tax-payer funded corporate welfare for vaccine and drug manufacturers. There are a number of other serious defects in this legislation. Please oppose it.
HR 2485 DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2005
Introduced by Burton and Pallone appropriates $175M between now and 2010 to give the FDA more money to enforce regulations which are highly detrimental to supplement manufacturers and would expose them to more stringent regulatory requirements than those faced by the pharmaceutical industry. This is not a pro-health bill and should be opposed.
HR 2510 Dietary Supplement Regulatory Implementation Act of 2005
Sponsored by Pallone is an even worse version of HR 2485. In addition to the above, it provides for the by-now-all-too-familiar adverse event reporting system for supplements, but not drugs, an additional $10M to “educate” physicians and consumers about dietary supplements and forbidding ephedrine alkaloids altogether. This is HR 2510 on steroids and must be defeated.
The Ugly:
HR 3156 Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act
Introduced by Susan Davis and co-sponsored by Waxman and Dingell is a strongly pro-pharma, anti-health bill that must be defeated. It not only provides for burdensome, expensive and unnecessary post market surveillance by supplement manufacturers, it creates the supplements-only-no-drugs-allowed adverse event reporting system common to so many of these bills, and, most dangerously, permits the FDA to ban any nutrient which has any degree of risk associated with it – no matter how small – even in the absence of any harm from that substance. In other words, it gives the FDA a green light to ban all nutrients. Fascinatingly, Ms. Davis’ bill was introduced on June 30, just days before the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline was ratified by CODEX. This bill excludes vitamins and minerals. Clearly, the assumption was that CODEX would take care of them so Davis would take care of the amino acids, essential fatty acids, etc. This bill must be soundly defeated.
Is this a lot of information? Yes. But it is the most important information of the day for a health-loving American. Folks, these bills are direct attacks against the American people. They have nothing to do with our “protection”, “well-being”, or any other lame excuse. We must take action against these bills. And we will be asking you to take action again because the pro-illness forces will come back with more bills when we defeat these. But that is the price Jefferson cautioned us about: eternal vigilance.
So please click here to tell Congress we are serious about our health freedom.
From where Congress sits, one constituent voice equals the 13,000 others who have not made their identical opinions clear. Speak out now for health freedom and tell everyone you know that they need to speak out now, too!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
We at the Natural Solutions Foundation (sponsors of HealthFreedomUSA.org) are not interested in “destroying” the pharmaceutical industry. We are here to protect health freedom – the invaluable freedom to choose for our own health. We believe that if people choose to buy the products of the pharmaceutical industry in a free market (i.e. where drugs are not pushed on people but chosen by people), and if proper, unbiased safety testing has been carried out on the drugs, then the industry’s business success is between them and their customers. If adults are informed and happy with side-effects and the fact that drugs don’t get to root causes of illness, then that’s fine with us. If they want it, they want it. Live and let live, as long as we don’t hurt each other.
The problem, however, is that the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t seem to respect the right of people to choose products other than their own drugs. They are trying to stop natural health products through CODEX ALIMENTARIUS. It seems they are making a big effort to implement CODEX through disinformation and lobbying. It is costing them a lot of money. Why all this trouble to create a forced market for drugs? Why all this expense? Why doesn’t big pharma simply do their own thing (mind their own business so to speak), and leave the wellness industry alone, so that the wellness industry can be judged by the free market?
Furthermore, if big pharma’s products are so good for people, then why do they want to see CODEX ALIMENTARIUS implemented worldwide? Don’t they trust the free market to bring them financial success without an artificial and unscientific regulatory code like CODEX ALIMENTARIUS? Indeed, why would they even need CODEX? Maybe there’s something about their products that would make selling more difficult, if more people became aware of this something?
The answer could very well be that big pharma doesn’t trust the free market. Why not?
Food for thought.
Yours in Health and Freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
P.S. Make sure to donate to keep HealthFreedomUSA.org going strong. We are serious about protecting health freedom, and part of our work is exposing important facts so people can understand the reasons for threats to health freedom. We are not interested in widening the rift between allopathy and natural medicine, or the pharmaceutical and wellness industries. The world needs dialogue and mutual understanding, not further rift.
Susan Davis, a Congresswoman from California, has a very bad idea. Her idea is called HR 3156, a health freedom-destroying bill up for review by Congress. It is very important that HR 3156 is not passed by Congress.
If it is passed, it could throw a serious monkey wrench into our work of protecting health freedom. That’s because if HR 3156 is passed, it would destroy the protection offered by DHSEA.
We must make a din that Congress cannot pretend it isn’t hearing! And I believe we can do it. Currently, HealthFreedomUSA.org receives around 2000 unique visitors per day. That’s quite good. The numbers are increasing every week (thank you to all those who are telling family, friends and colleagues).
Since Thursday, July 14, when HealthFreedomUSA.org first began the campaign to stop HR 3156, over a thousand letters have been sent to Congress about Susan Davis’ health freedom-destroying bill. It’s clear that HealthFreedomUSA.org is a powerful tool for serious grass-roots action in the cause of health freedom. Because of HealthFreedomUSA.org and the traffic it gets, we now have the ability to mobilize thousands of people per week.
Let us use this ability, and let us use it right now. What I would like to ask you to do is phone your Congressional delegate, and tell them about Susan Davis’ health freedom-destroying HR3156 and why it must be stopped. Ask your Congressional delegate to visit www.healthfreedomusa.org/new-letter to learn about HR3156 and then vote against it if put up for review in Congress. Yes, I am asking you to use the phone, because it will add an additional volley of pressure on Congress after all the email letters sent since last Wednesday. Emails can be deleted, but phone calls cannot (your Congressional delegate would not hang up on you).
Click here to find the phone number for your local Congressman or Congresswoman.
Some would say most of our politicians are doing the best that they can. I agree. However, it is clear that some of them sometimes need to be reminded about the objective of their chosen profession (service). If we help them remember who they’re meant to be serving (the people), and that HR3156 is based on risk assessment (the completely wrong science for assessing nutrients) rather than biochemistry (the right science for assessing nutrients), then we have done a good job as informed citizenry of our fascinating nation (that is in serious need of healing).
And please donate to support HealthFreedomUSA.org. Your donations are critical to keep us going strong.
Yours in Health and Freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
P.S. Feel free to leave comments to my blog entries.
P.P.S. Make sure to spread the word. I’ve heard about health food store workers posting the HR3156 letter on their bulletin boards. That’s a good idea. Do the same if you can, especially if you’re in California.
Apparently my blog, “Miracle in Rome” left some people confused. Let me respond to the comments which some of you have been kind enough to share with us.
On Wednesday, July 6, the joint World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Consultant’s Report was presented to the 28the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Commission (CAC). Its 20 recommendations were formally presented for discussion by the CAC at that time. This Consultant’s Report was commissioned in 2002 because of serious concern over CODEX and its work and this was an important opportunity for the CAC to deal with some suggestions for improvement in performance and reduction of bureaucratic overburden.
Out of the 20 recommendations by WHO and FAO, the 18th is what the excitement is all about: it notes that CODEX had no relationship with nutrition and that it needed to determine whether it had one and, if so, what that relationship is.
This is a stinging rebuke to Dr. Rolf Grossklaus, chair of the CODEX Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU), the 1994 decision of that committee to continue to classify nutrients as toxins, its use of toxicology (“Risk Assessment”) to prevent doses of nutrients high enough to have any clinical impact and his stated position that “nutrition has no place in medicine” (reported by Paul Anthony Taylor at the November, 2004 CCNFSDU meeting in Bonn, Germany). Dr. Grossklaus has railroaded the use of Risk Assessment, a branch of toxicology, to make any but clinically ineffective, ultra low doses of a few nutrients on a highly restricted list available. Everything else will be illegal, whether or not a doctor thinks you should have it.
At the same time, it is an equally stinging rebuke for the CODEX Committee on Food Labeling which has prohibited the discussion or mention of any benefits provided by nutrients under any conditions.
Astonishingly, the chairman of the CAC refused to allow discussion of that resolution. Read the hubris of that for a moment: the WHO and FAO had just made their evaluation of CODEX public and the recommendations that come from that evaluation were presented to the CAC for discussion and the CAC could not even have a discussion about whether CODEX should have a relationship to nutrition by his autocratic (but unopposed) decision. Health Freedom advocates should not be very proud of the US’s performance in this body, by the way. Don’t forget that harmonization with international regulations which violate US law (CODEX violates DSHEA) is illegal in the US and the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline will violate DSHEA (assuming that we can protect it from threats like HR 3156, of course).
The World Health representative and her FAO counterpart were not at all amused. Shortly before his autocratic dismissal of Recommendation No. 18,, when the Chairman and members of the CAC were demanding more money from WHO and FAO (who provide CAC’s funding), the CAC Chairman was busy chastising the WHO for not increasing its budget for several years. The WHO representative told CAC that it was not going to get more money “by griping about it here” and that the WHO was not likely to give more money to the CAC at all, in fact. Chief among the reason, she said, in public, to the assembled CAC, was that CODEX ALIMENTARIUS HAD FAILED TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD HEALTH during its 42 year history!
Think about that from the point of view of a political analyst and you will see the opportunity presented to our side. There is clearly a pro-health side to this system. CODEX isn’t it, of course, but the pro-health forces control the purse strings. It is true that WHO has never been really big on nutrients, but it does recognize that they, along with diet and exercise, play a vital role in health preservation and disease prevention. CODEX, of course, does not.
Things got a whole lot better the next day, though. On Thursday, July 7, at the end of the day, after all of the CAC deliberations had concluded (with precisely zero attention to either the concepts of Recommendation No. 18 or the comments of the WHO representative), the WHO representative, along with those from FAO made it clear that CODEX would redirect its efforts and that it would make a contribution to human health by implementing the WHO Global Strategy on diet, nutrition and exercise either by redefining the purposes of the committees which deal with nutrition (CCFL and CCNFSDU) or, if CAC did not chose to do that, by creating a Task Force on Nutrition. The CAC meeting then came to a stunned close.
Suddenly the ground shifted and nutrition had a strong, protected foothold and two very protective advocates, the WHO and the FAO. That does not mean, of course, that the Bigs (Big Pharma, Big Agra-Biz, Big Chema, Big Biotechna and Big Medica) are going to role over and play dead. Quite the contrary. What it does mean, though, is that we, the health advocates, have people who are listening to our position on health and who have both CAC’s financial reins and the procedural ones.
The next day, Friday, July 8, was devoted to the CODEX Trust Fund, money set aside to bring the developing world into the CODEX process while Saturday morning, July 9, was a review of the report of the meeting provided by the CODEX Secretariat. Notably, not one word in that report reflected what I have just told you. It was as if it had never happened! But it did happen and, in fact, these events constitute the best news that health and health freedom have had since the passage of DSHEA in 1994!
We now have the opportunity to support the parent organizations in demanding that CODEX “make a contribution to human health” or that it cease its work!
If you have been following our interpretation of CODEX you know that it is far, far worse than just a restriction of nutrients. But CODEX has to make a contribution to human health and we have the opportunity to help it do just that! Up till now, we have been fighting the Bigs alone. Now we have two internationally respected and powerful organizations (which, by the way, control the funding of CODEX) on our side IF we communicate with them correctly. If we shout imprecations at them they will not listen to whatever we say. We need reasonable presentations of strong science, firm and rational logic and data well organized to make the point that CODEX’s anti-health guidelines and standards violate the very tenets upon which health rests for the planet.
Gift? Yes! Miracle? Apparently! Time to stop? Not if we want to preserve both health and health freedom on this planet!
Yours in health, freedom and hope,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
P.S. The trip to Rome was quite costly. If you can, please make a donation to support our expenses. Your donations are our only source of funding.
P.P.S. Dr. Grossklaus showed no signs of a sudden redemption and conversion to health advocacy. Neither did the US delegation, including our CODEX Manager, Dr. Scarbrough. But we had a very interesting conversation with Dr. Scarbrough. I’ve talked about it before, and I’ll talk about it again.
Susan Davis has introduced a bill into the US House of Representatives that can harm you and those you love. HR 3156 gives the FDA (not known as a pro-health organization in the best of times) astonishing power to take nutrients out of the market place if there is ANY risk associated with their use even if no harm has been caused by them and despite any benefit they may confer. It sets up a wildly non-level playing field by creating an Adverse Events reporting requirement for nutrients (which are known to be astonishingly safe and free of risk or complication) while there is no such reporting requirement or system for pharmaceuticals (which are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US when used according to instructions!
And the bill would cost $5M per year. You are supposed to pay for it not only with your tax dollars, but also by giving up your health rights conferred by the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) passed by unanimous consent by Congress!
HR 3156 also specifically excludes vitamins and minerals from the things it covers. Why? Because the CODEX Vitamin and Mineral Guideline was due to be passed in just a few days after Susan introduced it into the House so there was no need to fuss with them: it was already a done deal!
There is a vast body of biochemistry and nutritional literature which makes it clear what the consequences of passing HR 3156 are. If allowed to become law in the US, HR 3156 will
- shorten your lifespan and that of your children and parents
- increase your likelihood of developing cancer
- increase your likelihood of developing arthritis
- increase your likelihood of developing diabetes
- increase your likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease
- increase your likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease
- increase your likelihood of developing potentially lethal allergies
- increase your likelihood of developing osteoporosis
- increase your likelihood of developing macular degeneration and
- increase your likelihood of developing and dying from a vast array of other unnecessary agonies.
Obviously, the first order of legislative business for any health conscious person is to contact your Congressional Delegation and make sure that they understand that voting for this bill (or any of its twins that are sure to come down the pike) WILL be the end of their political career . And, oh by the way, this atrocity also needs to signal the end the careers of its co-sponsors, Waxman of California and Dingell of Michigan as well.
But stop for a minute to consider the following interesting question:
Whose store is the personable and warm-and-fuzzy Ms Davis minding? Whom is she serving at her table? Obviously not you and I!
Susan Davis was elected to the US House of Representatives from California’s 53rd District. She has been involved in public service for years, first in her lovely home town of San Diego and then as a member of the California State Assembly.
Here is what her official web site has to say about Susan:
Susan’s interest in public affairs grew out of her experiences as a social worker, parent, youth mentor, and military spouse. Growing up, Susan remembered her father, a pediatrician, sometimes leaving the house in the middle of the night to care for his young patients. Through these life experiences, Susan developed an understanding of and deep commitment to improving her community and country.
Dr. Laibow notes: the logic of that escapes me but, hey, who am I to question deep commitment to improving someone’s community and country?
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Susan grew up in Richmond, California. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in sociology. She then earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina.
After graduation, Susan and her husband, Steve, lived in Japan with their two children, Jeffery and Benjamin, while Steve served as a doctor in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.
Residents of San Diego since 1972, Susan and Steve have been married for 38 years. They have two grandchildren, Henry and Jane.
So we have nice lady with a long marriage and a public spirit serving her district in the House.
Altogether, Susan Davis sounds like a nice lady with a public spirit and a devotion to doing the right thing, doesn’t she? And, for all I know, maybe she is. Maybe on the private levels she is a terrific mom and grandmother and, for all I know, grows beautiful roses and gives great dinner parties, too! So the issue is not whether Susan Davis is a nice person or not. The question that your health and that of your family hangs on is, whose work is Susan doing? Just whose health is Susan Davis protecting? I believe I have the answer for you.
So why would friendly, warm and ever-so-human Susan (who understands the high personal cost of illness from her physician father and husband’s professional lives) introduce a bill designed to gut DSHEA and guarantee increased human suffereing? After all, her bio says that she is interested in health. She probably is interested in the nutrition of her children and grand children, too.
But why would that bill get introduced into the House of Representatives on June 30, 2005, just days before the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Commission was set to adopt the restrictive and pro-illness Vitamin and Mineral Guideline? And why would that bill specifically exclude vitamins and minerals since the FDA says that CODEX has no impact on domestic law?
Well, let’s see what sort of a district Susan represents. In addition to the lovely Torrey Pines State Reserve, Sea World and Balboa Park, here’s who lives in her neighborhood and who’s coming to dinner at Susan’s well laid table:
The San Diego metropolitan area is a leader in biomedical research and development, with a significant concentration of research institutions and biotechnology firms — such as Salk Institute, Scripps Research Institute, and the University of California San Diego.
There are more than 1,400 life scientists working in the region, three biological institutions granting life science PhDs. One of these institutions is ranked among the top 20 nationally in life sciences research.
The San Diego area has 33 publicly traded biotech companies and includes 31 firms with more than 100 employees. Sixty-one of these firms are members of the national Biotechnology Industry Association.
Visit often as the latest pharmaceutical jobs in San Diego can be found at sandiego.hirerx.com
But wait! There’s more! According to ColorBasePair, in lovely San Diego there are 72 pharmaceutical firms, 11 more in nearby La Jolla, and that’s just for starters! So Susan’s table is serving up a royal feast for Big Pharma. That’s whose health she’s taking care of!
Big Pharma is, of course, not in the business of keeping you or your loved ones healthy. Although much of the raw materials for your nutrients is produced by Big Pharma or its subsidiaries (and often distributed by them, too), all that nutrition stuff is bad for business because it can solve health problems at the root, making drugs to cover symptoms unnecessary. The scientific literature and clinical experience, as well as common sense, make the point clearly: when people have ample, or better yet, optimal levels of nutrients they simply do not develop the chronic, degenerative diseases which are the result of long-term toxicity (from our polluted air, water, and food) and under-nutrition. But these chronic degenerative diseases are where the money is for the pharmaceutical industry.
As is usually the case, follow the money.
Take macular degeneration (MD), for example. When I graduated from Medical School in 1970, by definition MD never afflicted anyone younger than 60 and was very rare in people under 65. Besides, MD was pretty uncommon. Today, we have an epidemic of MD (now the leading cause of blindness in the US). I have personally seen a family in which an 18 year old daughter and their 21 year old son had both lost their sight to MD! It has become commonplace in people in their 40’s and is often seen in 30 year olds. Why the change? Very simple:
chronic under-nutrition leading to changes which the body lacks the nutritional tools to correct. Damage accumulates and one more blind victim of nutritional scarcity struggles to get through life in the dark. Food in our society is plenty. However, because most of it is now processed, in terms of nutritional content, our food is literally starving our cells.
But, like all of the other diseases of chronic under-nutrition, there are drugs for MD. They don’t work particularly well and they are VERY expensive, but there they are and more are in the pipeline.
Now, if you are a drug company and you are going to spend the better part of a billion dollars developing a drug for something and getting it approved for market, don’t you want a lot of that something around so you can sell a lot of your drug? There you have the pharmaceutical reality, plain and simple:
- Selling drugs is our business.
- We make money from our business.
- Healthy people don’t need drugs.
- Nutrients make and keep people healthy.
- Nutrients are bad for business.
- Let’s get rid of nutrients.
Or, in practical terms: Let’s make sure that CODEX ALIMENTARIUS supports our business world wide and, here in the US at least, let’s go have dinner at Susan’s table!
What can you and I do?
Make sure HR 3156 (and the others like it that will be introduced) never gets passed. Protect DSHEA and tell Congress that you take this issue seriously enough to make sure that health defenders will go back to Congress and Big Pharma friends will not be re-elected.
Please send this letter to Congress about Susan’s HR 3156. Sending the letter is very easy and takes only a minute or two.
Do it now, if you care at all about health freedom.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Laibow
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
P.S. General Stubblebine and I will be heading home tomorrow so the likelihood of a Daily Update is low until Sunday, July 17.