Monday, March 8, 2010 at 8:15PMUpdate: While the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Senator McCain has withdrawn his support from S. 3002, it is still important to keep the pressure on the Senate to make sure they do not pass this bill.
Dear AAPS Action Team,
Call your Senators (Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 or click here to find their direct numbers) and tell them to oppose Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan’s (D-ND) bill S. 3002 “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010″ which would repeal key section of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). DSHEA has protected consumers access to dietary supplements and limited the FDA’s power until now. If S. 3002 passes it would;
- require all supplements to be approved by the Federal government through a new and unspecified process. Only those ingredients that are on the approved dietary ingredient list can be sold.
- any business or operation engaged in manufacturing, packaging, labeling, holding, or distributing dietary supplements would have to register with the Federal government.
- new dietary supplements would have to go through a difficult and expensive process to be approved for use. Instead of considered safe and proven unsafe by the FDA, they will be considered unsafe by the FDA and need to be proven safe by the manufacturers.
The FDA already has the legal authority it needs to remove dietary supplements from the market that it deems dangerous and its against the law already for dietary supplement manufactures to sell drug tainted supplements. Therefore the arguments used to support the bill are not supportable by the facts.
Tell your Senators to support consumers access to dietary supplements by not cosponsoring the bill S. 3002 “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010″ and also tell them to call Senators McCain and Dorgan and have them pull the bill.
Thank you,
Michael D. Ostrolenk, MA, MFT
Public Policy Counsel
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Reader Comments (7)
This would be a disaster for many people. Only health professionals who take the time to study supplements and their effects can make these determinations. The FDA, as well as many doctors who don't study this, have no frame of reference for making these decisions. Leave these decisions in the hands of those who know. How many people have you heard of dying from supplements. ZERO. Drugs don't have nearly as good a record, and that may be the issue here.
This is just another of big brothers way of controlling our everyday lives. It will make the price of every supplement go up. John McCain is behind this. He is not republican and he needs to go. He will pass anything to get his name out there. I haven't forgotten about the amnesty bill that he pushed. He is still trying that. He is just getting his friend Lindsey Graham to put his name on it until the Senate race is over. I pray that he loses.
THIS BILL IS EXACTLY WHAT WE DO NOT NEED, MORE GOVERNMENT IN OUR LIVES. HOW MANY MORE LIVES HAVE TO BE SACRIFICED BY THE FDA. THE ONLY PRACTICAL PURPOSE THEY SERVE IS TO PROTECT DOCTORS AND DRUGS COMPANIES FROM MAJOR LAW SUITS. THE FDA IS THE BUFFER BETWEEN PLAINTIFFS, DOCTORS, AND DRUG COMPANIES.
The Federal Government needs to get back in line with the Constitution of the United States of America, by getting out of the everyday lives of the American people, letting the free market work as it was designed to do, and does so well, when the government is not intruding. We the people are wide awake and are pushing back against this tyrannical admnistration. We will not stop either until we get the job done. We will not go back to sleep either, lest we end up in this same boat again!!
Why can't this government get in line with the Constitution and our rights. I take my vitamins and anti oxidents and I am a healthy 70 yr old with no prescriptions. By keeping up with my preventative testing and communicating with my Dr's, I am fortunate to be healthy and sickness is rare. My Dr's take care of the problems I can't control. We cannot allow the supplements to be in government control. They will only screw up something that is working and take my rights away to control my own body. Because of supplements it allows our Drs. to have more time for the critical things that need care. My freedom of choice for supplements and Doctor has done well for me and I want it to continue.
Irving Kirsch's recent book, "The Emperor's New Drugs", details in extremely thorough and unusually readable fashion why the entire class of SSRI "anti-depressants" were approved by the FDA in spite of the fact that they ALL turned out to be active placebos.
The FDA has refused to clean its own house. This is not the time to assign more responsibility to the FDA for safeguarding our health and our lives. This agency has failed miserably to protect us and has been utterly unable to admit this failure publicly and to correct its errors. Therefore it would be insane to expand its powers now.
Drug companies seem the most likely entities to lobby our legislators in favor of restricting our access to nutrients. We have had enough of their lobbying for now. We have also had enough of many of their products which were wrongly approved as being safe and efficacious (when in some cases they are neither safe nor efficacious).
We Need to have this government stay out of our everyday lives. The constitution has to be followed and the Government Ethics Commitee should make sure this happens. We have to much Government Control already. Wake up Senators you are here to serve the people. This is America. (THE HOME OF WHICH ONCE WAS THE FREE AND THE BRAVE)