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Why do meddling Eurocrats want to ban your vitamin pills?

Read Geoffrey Lean's illuminating article published in the Daily

Mail on the day of the court hearing in Luxembourg.

Why do meddling Eurocrats want to ban your vitamin pills?

(Could it be anything to do with the drug giants hoping for huge

profits?)

Source: Daily Mail (Good Health section) 25/1/05

by Geoffrey Lean

Every day millions of us swallow vitamins, mineral supplements and

alternative medicines in the well founded belief that they will

benefit our health.

But in just six months, our favourite pills will be outlawed by

diktat of the European Union, aided and abetted by Tony Blair's

Government with a little help from the pharmaceutical industry,

which sees a golden opportunity to take control of a lucrative

market.

From the beginning of August, thousands of popular products will

disappear from the shelves - allegedly on safety grounds - unless

last-ditch attempts to save them succeed.

Today, campaigners are asking the European Court of Justice to over-

rule the ban, which is contained in a little-publicised EU directive.

Led by the Alliance for Natural Health - representing both consumers

and producers - they will argue that the European Union is exceeding

its powers. But our Government - together with those of Greece and

Portugal - is joining the EU in resisting them.

And this afternoon, the Tories, in a highly unusual move, are giving

one of their rare allocations of debating time in the House of

Commons to a cross-party motion calling for the ban to be scrapped.

The motion is co-sponsored by Tory frontbencher Grayling and

former Labour minister Kate Hoey and supported by MPs from all

parties.

If these two last-minute bids failand the honest attempts of

millions to improve their health are thwarted - the Government and

the EU will face an explosion of outrage and hostility.

Already, one million people have signed a petition condemning the

ban and MPs have received heaps of letters.

Celebrities such as Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joan Plowright, Bianca

Jagger, Seagrove and Cherie Blair's erstwhile guru, Carole

Caplin have also lobbied against it. But so far, every protest,

every argument has fallen on tightly closed ears in Brussels,

Whitehall and Downing Street.

We are heading for an Alice Through the Looking Glass world, where,

in Grayling's words: 'It will be illegal for a grown adult to

buy vitamin tablets but legal for a teenager to purchase cigarettes.'

More than 40% of us take mineral and vitamin pills; a third of us

take them every day. Like all alternative medicines they provoke

controversies, some stirred up by a medical establishment and drug

companies who fear that people will prefer them to their expensive

drugs.

Some studies do suggest that some alternative products may endanger

health if taken at recklessly high doses - though they are not in

the same league as the damage caused by side-effects from

prescription drugs, which one authoritative study concludes are the

fourth biggest cause of death in the United States, after heart

disease, cancer and strokes.

On the other hand, research shows that a lack of minerals and

vitamins increases the risk of cancer and heart disease - and that

levels of them are dropping alarmingly in modern diets.

This would suggest it is sensible to take the pills - and indeed a

recent study by the American Medical Association shows that some do

offer protection against these killer diseases.

This seems to make no difference to the EU which has gone about

banning them in a particularly underhand way - through the Food

Supplements Directive, a measure aimed at harmonising trade -

following intense lobbying by drug companies.

The Directive stipulates that no supplements can be sold after

August 1 that contain minerals or vitamins unless they are on a

restricted - and apparently illogical - 'approved list'.

Incredibly , some controversial compounds such as sodium fluoride,

used to kill pests, and caustic soda, used to clean drains are on

the list, while scores of safe, non-toxic ingredients believed to

benefit health, are excluded.

Campaigners calculate that about 300 of the 420 forms of minerals

and vitamins contained in some 5,000 supplements on sale in Britain

will be outlawed.

Some minerals - such as vanadium, silicon and boron - are banned

entirely. More often, says the Alliance for Natural Health,

relatively crude forms of minerals and vitamins are allowed, while

the more sophisticated ones preferred by alternative medicine

practitioners are banned.

For example, it says, forms of iron known to cause stomach upsets in

some people will be permitted, while ones taken up more easily by

the body will be outlawed.

And naturally occurring folic acid - found in spinach - will be

banned, while the form sold by pharmaceutical companies will be

allowed.

Other products may escape the ban, if special 'safety dossiers' on

them are submitted. But the small companies that make them cannot

afford the cost - at up to £250,000 an ingredient for products that

may contain many.

Is this just bureaucracy gone mad? Or something more sinister?

There's a clue in the contents of that approved list: by and large,

vitamins and minerals produced by big drug companies are on it,

while ones made by small, specialist firms are not.

Another clue is provided by the fact that the big drug companies

have welcomed the ban. Well, they would, wouldn't they? They say

customers will notice little difference as most of their products

will be on sale as usual.

They win both ways. Competition from sophisticated alternative

medicines will be greatly reduced and they will be well-placed to

dominate any residual market for the supplements, as smaller firms

are forced out of business.

And what are we to make of this Government, which refuses to take

adequate action on known perils like salt and fat in foods on the

grounds that people have the right to decide what they consume, so

long as they do not harm others?

Is it just being illogical in taking the opposite view over vitamins

and minerals? Or is it being consistent in promoting the profits of

giant food and drugs companies over the health of the people it is

supposed torepresent?

The answer seems inescapable, and disgraceful. And there is worse to

come. For this is just the start of an EU bid to get rid of most

alternative medicines; a similar ban on herbal pills is in the

pipeline.

In their cynicism, Whitehall and Brussels are sowing dragons' teeth.

For the outrage at the ban is likely to hit its peak just as they

are seeking Britons' approval in a referendum on the European

constitution.

And such blatant interference in personal freedom is likely to turn

many more people against the EU than the Euro.

Already some ministers sense the danger. Hain has condemned

the proposed ban as 'unnecessary interference'. It is hard to

disagree.

For, as a long-standing supporter of the European ideal, I have to

admit that the shameful story of the supplements illustrates the

very abuse of power about which the sceptics have long warned us.