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Supplement Users Wonder: Are Dick Durbin and Hillary Clinton Dictating FDA Policy? Says Project: FANS

 

 

Provided by US Newswire on 2/2/2004

 

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WASHINGTON, Feb 2, 2004 (U.S. Newswire via COMTEX) -- Project: FANS -- a grassroots organization formed to protect American's freedoms to access supplements -- is dismayed by what appears to be the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) continued secreted efforts against the Nutritional Supplement industry. At a recent speech given to the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi, FDA commissioner McClellan announced that in addition to their ban on Ephedra, the FDA was now also considering the removal of three well-known, often-used nutritional supplement ingredients from the market. "It is of great concern to all supplement users that the FDA is moving forward with bans that will effect numerous nutritional supplements, without reports of adverse events, when it has not yet fulfilled its promise to publish the rule that they are using to institute a ban on Ephedra," stated Beth Clay, director of Project: FANS. "For that matter, the agency has yet to make public the standard by which the FDA is now using to determine if a nutritional supplement product poses an unreasonable risk to consumers." Counter to his original statements, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and his anti-supplement crowd are not stopping with a ban on Ephedra. They are now attacking all dietary supplements used in weight-loss. Sens. Durbin and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and John Dingle (D-Mich.) continue pushing legislation that would institute unreasonable and overbearing controls on the entire supplement and vitamin industry. "The upside of what we are witnessing in the FDA's recent actions -- despite claims to the contrary by certain members of the Congress -- is that the FDA is proving it already has the power to regulate dietary supplements," continued Clay. "That said, Project: FANS still wants to see the evidence of risk that the FDA is basing their new inquiry on, and more importantly, we want to make sure that this is not simply an attempt on their part to placate Durbin, Clinton and Waxman." While Project: FANS acknowledges the FDA's authority to regulate vitamins and nutritional supplements, it is also concerned about the amount of misinformation and exaggerated information disseminated during recent coverage of the Ephedra ban. "While the agency contends there are 155 reported deaths 'linked' to Ephedra use over a ten year period, experts hired by the agency reported that less than 5 of those reported deaths were actually related to use of the supplement," Clay said. "In 2002, nine people died from eating charcoal, if we applied this new standard to this problem the FDA should move immediately to ban backyard barbeques." http://www.usnewswire.com CONTACT: Joe Giganti of Project FANS, 703-928-9695 or Joe