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Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has introduced a new bill called The Dietary Supplement
Safety Act (DSSA) of 2010 (S. 3002), that, if enacted, would severely curtail free access
to dietary supplements. Cosponsored by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the bill
would essentially give the FDA full control over the supplement industry.
Most of the industrialized world has incredibly restrictive laws governing supplements.
People worldwide often purchase supplements from the U.S. because they are freely
available at low costs.
All of this could change, however, if DSSA passes. DSSA would change key sections of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), undoing protections in the Dietary
Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, effectively eliminating free access
to supplements.
The importance of DSHEA
The passage of DSHEA resulted from millions of Americans who worked hard to reinforce
their freedom to buy and sell supplements. At the time, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) was alleging that nutrients like CoQ10 and selenium were dangerous and should be
pulled from the market.
Though weak in some areas, DSHEA established a foundation upon which free access to
dietary supplements would be protected from attacks by drug companies and the FDA.
What prompted DSSA?
McCain's DSSA bill emerged in response to illegal steroid use among Major League Baseball
players. Likely instigated by pharmaceutical interests, the bill is being posited as
necessary to prevent supplement adulteration.
The FDA already has the power to pull supplements from the market that are contaminated
but it has not been doing its job. DSSA is not only unnecessary, but it would actually
reward the FDA for its failures. DSSA would also strip DSHEA and give full control of the
supplement industry to the FDA.
Registration requirements
DSSA would mandate that all supplement companies register with the Secretary of Health and
Human Services (HHS), which oversees the FDA. Any company that refuses to register and
comply with HHS would be subject to hefty fines, the classification of its products as
"adulterated", and their removal from the market. The new system would burden
manufacturers with significant new costs that would cause supplement prices to increase. A
new taxpayer-funded bureaucracy would also be created to conduct inspections and oversee
compliance.
Reporting requirements
DSSA would require all "non-serious adverse events" received by supplement
companies to be reported to the government, regardless of whether or not the events are
related to the supplements for which they are submitted. Pharmaceutical companies would
have access to these reports which they could use to petition the FDA to have supplements
removed from the market. The FDA could also arbitrarily pull supplements from the market
if it believes it has "reasonable probability" that there may be a
problem.
FDA would decide which supplements are legal
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of DSSA is that it would allow the HHS Secretary to
establish a list of permitted supplements. Reversing common law, which assumes all is
legal unless restricted, DSSA would allow only what is permitted to be legal.
In a nutshell, DSSA would increase supplement costs for consumers, grant incredible new
power over the supplement industry to the FDA, and drastically limit the availability of
supplements. Drug companies could also use the bill to remove supplements from the market,
patent them, and sell them as drugs!
It is absolutely critical to contact your Congressmen and oppose this bill. Please visit
the LifeExtension Magazine Legislative
Action Center and click on the "take action" button to express opposition.
The Alliance for Natural Health also has a convenient Contact
Tool with which you can urge your Congressmen not to sponsor the bill. (2.26.2010,
Ethan Huff, citizen journalist, See
all articles by this author, Email
this author)
Sources:
Senator McCain Files New Bill That
Attacks Your Access to Supplements and Repeals Key Sections of the Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act - Alliance for Natural Health
The
Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 - Senator John McCain
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