Well in Europe they're apparently cracking down on viatamins.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1379780,00.html
EU rules threatening to sweep away vitamin pills
Gaby Hinsliff Political Editor
Sunday December 26, 2004
The Observer
Vitamin supplements used by thousands of Britons, from pregnant women to people warding off winter colds, are to be swept from shop shelves from the new year under controversial European Union safety regulations.
Carole Caplin, former style adviser to Cherie Blair, will front a last-ditch campaign next month to get the directive on food supplements overturned.
It would affect up to 5,000 products, including best-sellers such as Solgar's Pre-Natal Nutrients tablets, taken by pregnant and breastfeeding women; and VM-2000 multi-nutrient pills, a compound of antioxidants. Megadose vitamins, such as the high-strength vitamin C tablets taken by many to stave off coughs and sniffles, are also under threat, with new safety standards to be issued separately early next year.
Campaigners will take their fight to the European courts in January. However, they say some manufacturers have begun withdrawing from the legal challenge or started reformulating supplements to ensure they comply by August, when the directive will become law.
'We have got to do everything we can to put pressure on the British government, otherwise British consumers who have used these products for 40 or 50 years will lose out,' said Sue Croft of the pressure group, Consumers for Health Choice.
'People are using supplements as an insurance policy to keep themselves well. I'm not saying vitamins are a cure-all, but as a measure to keep somebody in good health, they work.
'If it's safe, you should be allowed to use it; therefore I cannot understand why the British government is not fighting our corner.'
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She said campaigners were also worried about the threat to megadose vitamins. 'We have a vitamin culture here, and we do take these high-strength nutrients where good science supports them. That could be 3g of vitamin C for example, where on the continent the highest dose you can get in some countries is 200mg.'
One in three women takes some form of health food supplement, particularly during pregnancy or menopause, as does one in four men.
Caplin, who regularly recommends alternative remedies to clients, is understood to have lobbied the Prime Minister personally.
She has also publicly accused the Health Minister, Melanie Johnson, of showing a 'distinct lack of care and interest' in the issue. Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, who has a longstanding interest in alternative therapies, is also understood to have raised objections to the directive, which he has described as 'heavy-handed'. Some 180 MPs have signed a Commons motion expressing 'grave concern' that pills and powders in common use are to become illegal.
The Food Supplements Directive in effect outlaws health food preparations containing ingredients not on its 'positive list' of permitted substances. Manufacturers prepared to draw up a detailed scientific dossier arguing that their ingredients are proven to be safe are allowed an extension until 2008.
Campaigners say the 'agreed' list was simply borrowed from one drawn up for baby foods, and there is no evidence any of the ingredients are unsafe for adults. They argue Britain is suffering from a culture-clash with continental countries, which traditionally treat vitamins as akin to medicines. In Greece they are usually obtained through pharmacists, while a 'megadose' of vitamin C in Italy can be only one-tenth as strong as one in Britain.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: 'We want to protect public health while keeping wide consumer choice.'
Many doctors are sceptical about megadose vitamins, arguing that a healthy diet meets most people's needs.
Regards,
John M. Drake
