The EU situation

Nov. 2002

It has been so difficult to update this situation as nothing much has happened, until the last few months.The Health Food Industry: National Association of Health stores, Consumers for Health Choice, Health Food Manufacturers Association and various Herbal and Natural Practitioner associations finally got to meet with Lord Hunt, the Junior Under Minister of Health who is dealing with the EU directives. He was initially defensive but subsequently admitted that he had not been informed of the consequences to the Health Food Industry and to consumer freedom, he then extended the consultation period, a little crumb of encouragement. Although he is trying to be helpful it is our opinion that he is fairly ignorant of the implications.There are three threats: Food Supplements DirectiveTraditional Herbal Medicinal Products DirectiveAmendments to the Medicines DirectiveThe first, the Food Supplements directive, is already Law !

If you want to understand these directives and their implications better please go to the website of CHC (Consumers for Health Choice), they are fighting for your rights.

Please support them

www.healthchoice.org.uk

Our Opinion

We believe that the European Parliament is being used by big business, especially the Pharmaceutical lobby, to tell consumers what they can buy. There is an ever increasing interest in natural remedies for every day complaints, these natural remedies are continually being 'got at' by the media and the MCA. (see below)The MCA (Medicines Control Agency) is a self funded Government department set up to control the use of Pharmaceutical Drugs, it is pretty obvious to most people that in the light of cases such as Thalidomide and Xeroxat that they are are not terribly efficient at protecting the public. The side effects of Drugs are many and serious, the side effects of vitamins, minerals and herbs are virtually non-existent, nevertheless the MCA has decided that it must become the publics defender from vitamins, minerals and herbs, even though it is totally unqualified to make judgements about natural products.

Our Political Voice

We have pinched this heading from an article in a Health Food trade magazine written about a political lobbyist, Chris Whitehouse. Chris has been retained for about four years by CHC to fight for our and your rights. Chris comes from a fairly conventional political background, he could have become a Tory MP, but he chose the cut and thrust of political lobbying.

Here are some quotes from the article:

"Lord Hunt has also picked up on another point made on 17 June - that, whatever the outcome of this regulatory process, he was personally open to substantial political criticism. This is because the MCA's regulatory impact assessment made sweeping assertions about the impact of the Directive on the Specialist Retailers and yet the specialist retailers had not been consulted by the MCA, and he, the Minister, had failed to respond to their request for a meeting.

He was clearly taken aback by that - that I was accusing the MCA of inadequate consultation - because he said the MCA had bent over backwards with a whole series of meetings since 1998. I said "yes Minister I've been to every single one of those meetings. They have a lot of meetings, they sit down and say 'what do you think?', they then go away and systematically ignore what you said. That is not consultation. That is a boring series of pointless meetings."

Lord Hunt did eventually agree to a meeting with representatives of the Health Food Industry, I have spoken to three people who were at that meeting, what transpired, and it would not have been a bad plot for "yes Minister" is that Lord Hunt was amazed that he knew so little about the 'facts' and the devastating effects that the Directives would have on the Health Food Industry and on Consumer Choice: "nobody told me that" was his response to many challenges.

Chris Whitehouse again:

"We are dictated to by Europe. While I think we have made great progress in (showing) two Ministers that not all the MCA has been telling them is accurate or fair, their ability to influence the Directive is going to be very limited indeed."

In response to the question; Has the trade lost confidence in the MCA over the way it has dealt with herbals; This is what Chris has to say:

"It depends on what confidence the trade had in the MCA in this respect in the first place. The MCA should be there to regulate pharmaceutical products. It's an inappropriate body for regulating herbal remedies. There is a strong case for a separate regulatory body to look at these products, simply because the culture and the mindset of the MCA as an institution is at best sceptical and at worst institutionally hostile to the natural health products sector."

Some Observations

We find it strange that the herbal supplements that are always being discredited are the ones that are 'popular' and actually work, it is very odd that both St John's Wort and Kava Kava have come under the knife, both being very effective and popular alternatives to Prozac.We have heard that the next herb to be blackened is Black Cohosh, a very effective alternative to HRT, which itself has had a very bad press, after that it might possibly be Saw Palmetto, a safe herb proven in clinical trials to be superior to Proscar for Prostate problems. It is strange that herbs that are effective but generally unknown to the public are seldom brought into question, only the ones that are popular.

It is also very strange that only effective supplements need regulating, according to the MCA, after all the regulatory instuments that are being proposed have been implemented you will still be able to go into a Supermarket and buy overpriced, low dose supplements that do not work. The MCA do not seem to be concerned with effectiveness.