To: IAHF LIST
Subject: Consumer Action Required Or Europe is LOST: European Food Supplements Directive - An Ongoing Dialogue...
From: "International Advocates for Health Freedom" jham@iahf.com
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 14:29:47 -0400

IAHF List, Dr.Rath, SPNT list, orthomolecular list: The dialogue below my comments is between Ralph Pike, Josef Hasslberger, and myself. Please read it in order to learn of the horrible unfolding situation re vitamin access in the EU, a situation that will negatively impact vitamin consumers world wide, including here in America due to the negative impact it will have on Codex, unless things can be turned around.

I really hope Dr. Matthias Rath reads this and awakens to the dire need to help fight back, because we only have until December 6th to stop the Pharma Cartel in the EU. There is a VERY serious need for vitamin consumers throughout Europe to wake up and fight for their rights. If they don't, the whole WORLD will lose via Codex.

As you can see from this I'm doing my best to help Ralph and Josef in any way I can. I really hope that they'll take my suggestions to heart, and that together we can find answers and find ways to fight back successfully, because if we can't, whats unfolding in the EU, with all but England now walking in lockstep with the Germans, the whole world is being set up to be screwed via Codex, but people don't think this is real, and far too many are fast asleep. Hopefully, this will help wake up Dr.Rath and lots of others besides, not only in Europe, but all over the world. It especially bothers me when people fail to grasp the Hegelian dialectic as it is being played out here. The Hegelian dialectic: First the Pharma Cartel created the PROBLEM (threat of regulation to RDA levels), that prompted a desired REACTION (fear amongst the public and vitamin manufacturers) THEN the Pharma Cartel came forward with an ALLEGED SOLUTION (the so called SAFE UPPER LEVEL). The problem with embracing the National Academy of Science's views on "safe upper levels" is that the NAS is pharmaceutically funded, pharmaceutically biased, and the whole premise of their paper is scientifically invalid. See http://www.iahf.com/ NAS and REBUTTAL.

If we FAIL to argue from a position of strength, we're done for, and arguing in favor of the "UL"s recommended by the NAS is to set up the industry for complete DESTRUCTION. I really hope that Ralph Pike and all vitamin companies world wide will read Dr.Malter's REBUTTAL to the NAS paper, as well as the information from Dr.Leibovitz at http://www.iahf.com before continuing to follow the path to destruction which was engineered as our alleged "solution" by the Pharma Cartel which funded the NAS paper titled "A Risk Assessment Model for Establishing Safe Upper Levels for Nutrients".

Please forward this to more people. Anyone can be on the IAHF list via http://www.iahf.com/ IAHF urgently needs donations to bring this information to as many people as possible. IAHF PO Box 625 Floyd VA 24091 USA

At 05:47 AM 10/25/00 -0400, Ralph Pike, Director of the National Assn of Health Stores in the UK wrote:

Dear Joseph, (Hasslberger- from the Italian Health freedom group La Leva Di Archimedes)

Thank you for sending me this message and attachment. As you point out, we have a very real problem, and it appears that those responsible for dealing with this directive for our industry have not done their job properly.

From the UK perspective, I believe that consumer pressure is now absolutely necessary, but do not think that the UK needs to be mobilized. CHC has been lobbying UK MP's and MEP's for years on this issue and our government in fully supportive of our aims, and cannot do more than they are already doing. It is the other EU Member States that we must change opinions of, especially countries like Portugal (who did not support the UK, but remained silent), Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Holland.

I understand that CHC suggested to other Member States that they should also be lobbying national MP's and MEP's a long time ago, but other organizations vetoed this advice and such lobbying has sadly not taken place. CHC has met with numerous MEPs from all countries, and most of them do not understand the basic issues - even that the RDA/PRI has nothing whatsoever to do with safety. This is a fundamental problem - without the knowledge, the decision making process will be flawed.

(John Hammell response):

Ralph and Joseph: I just went to http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_meps2.repartition?ilg=EN and note that there are 625 members of the EU Parliament from all 15 countries in the EU. I examined a few of these people at random just to see what is on the site, and each MEP has an email address, and information about their party affiliations, committees they're on, some have photos, but all in all theres virtually no information about these people available on this site.

I'm glad CAC has at least met with MEPs from all countries, but I gather that CAC is not a true grass roots organization, that its actually a PR firm hired by some of the American companies within NAHS with little or no actual consumer involvement, is that true? What companies are funding CAC and can you please give me a way to contact them? Has NAHS made an effort to reach out to consumers throughout the EU via CAC? If so in what ways? The only way that I can see you might have success would be if you could somehow engage in a campaign via CAC to educate vitamin consumers throughout health food stores all over the EU.

This happened here in the states during the drive to pass DSHEA.If we hadn't mounted a campaign of the magnitude that we did, we wouldn't have stood a chance, and the same is true of you. Here during the campaign to pass DSHEA there were information kiosks set up in all the health food stores: letter writing stations where consumers could get complete information on what was going on, and were provided with the information necessary to writing their own letters to Congress, as well as information on how to visit their Senators and Congressmen in order to serve as citizen lobbyists. People were actively encouraged by industry to help them out as volunteers, to sit in front of health food stores with a card table and form letters, to encourage people to write their own letters, and to make trips to Washington to meet with elected officials. I worked with a group of people, including Gary Null,PhD, author of books on vitamins, and health freedom radio talk show host to organize a demonstration in Washington DC. We bussed people down from the metro NYC area and had a lot of good speakers lined up to discuss health freedom, the benefits of vitamins, the outrage of the FDA's proposed rule and what was at stake if we failed to prevail against them. At the end of our demonstration, we all went to lobby Congress together, and to deliver all of the petitions that people at the demonstration had been collecting signatures on for a long time.

You aren't doing what you need to be doing over there in Europe to win a battle of this kind, and unless you can start doing these kinds of things somehow, you will just get steamrolled, but it won't just effect you, it will impact us here in the USA and Canada too due to the impact of the EU walking in lockstep with the Germans on Codex. Question: Why don't you bring some speakers over from the states? Why don't you enlist the aide of people such as Gary Null, Julian Whitaker, and others by having them come over to do some public speaking? Isn't there anything a person living outside the EU can do to formally protest this since it will end up effecting us too? I don't like being at the mercy of an apparently ineffective European health freedom movement, that aside from a handful of dedicated people such as yourselves seems to be generating no offense. I find the situation to be very disturbing given the personal implications it has due to Codex.

Where is Dr.Rath on all of this? He had a meeting with Ralf Langner due to my email, but I don't know if he intends to do anything or not and if so, I don't know what his plans are but I sure hope he wakes up to the reality that he is going to be driven out of business in Holland unless he fights this. Unless he starts mounting the same sort of awareness campaign that he did with Codex, he's done for and so is everyone in Europe who uses vitamins.

Through Codex, even the USA can eventually be taken down unless people wake up. I'm finding that an awful lot of people world wide have their heads planted firmly in the sand, deep in denial over this. What do we have to do to wake people up? Whats MAYDAY doing in Denmark, Joseph? Anything at all?

I'm on the SPNT email list, and the impression I have is that Linda Lazerides feels disinclined to get particularly involved this time around, preferring to "leave the matter to those who are being paid to address it." Does she have a clue??? Her attitude disgusts me and I hope she wakes up to the reality that she could easily be stripped of her personal access if she abdicates her role as a leader. We all need to get PAST the apathy that is KILLING us. No one can AFFORD to sit on the sidelines, even if they HAVE been involved in the fight in the past. No PAIN, no GAIN. This is NOT a stroll around the park- its a WAR. Human LIVES are at stake.

I don't particularly ENJOY inserting myself into the European Battle for health freedom as an American, but I have no ILLUSIONS about the fact that what is unfolding in the EU WILL end up effecting all of us here in the USA and Canada due to the impact the EU situation will have on CODEX. I'm not a masochist. These political battles ARE painful, but unless all of us, world wide, pitch in to help the health freedom fighters of Europe RIGHT NOW, we will all suffer down the road.

What are the organizations that "vetoed" the CAC's good advice that there is a dire need to lobby? This situation is MORE than just "sad" human LIVES are at stake! Can you think of any systematic way to try to rectify this horrible situation given the short amount of time we have? Is there any way the issue can be delayed somehow?

CHC has prepared a leaflet that has already been translated into Swedish, Finnish and Danish. Would you (and anyone else reading this) like to see this, and maybe use it in Italy (and any other country)?

(JH) Please get me copies of these leaflets in as many languages as possible. I will email them to the MEPs, and encourage others to do the same, but can't you do anything to get people in the EU off their asses? Dr. Rath, where are you ? We need you to alert people on this!

Are you saying that you support the complete deletion of Article 5 (1) (b)? does your industry have a clear position on this?

(JH) Please tell me again what Article 5 (1) b references?

Regarding the setting of maximum permitted levels, it is my understanding that whilst the SCF will establish USLs, it is politicians within the Standing Committee that will decide what the maximum permitted level for a supplement will be, based upom prposals from Commission Officials that take into account the USL, PRIs when close to the USL, and nutrient intake from other dietary sources; including possibly intake from fortified foods. Therefore, any USL established by the SCF can be drastically reduced by the politicians and/or Commission Officials in the next stage of the process. Ultimately, the final amount of nutrient allowed in supplements will be a political decision.

(JH) This is an outrageous SCAM! The "UL"s themselves aren't at all "scientific" and were developed by the NAS, via pharmaceutical donations, but you're touting them as the alleged "answer" to those who advocate restrictions to the PRI? You are buying into the Hegelian dialectic: problem, reaction, "solution" but the so called "UL" is no "solution", Ralph. The "UL" is part of the SCAM!

I see a VAST GLOBAL SCREWING shaping up unless more people read Dr.Malter's rebuttal to the NAS so called "risk assessment" paper. See http://www.iahf.com/ NAS paper and rebuttal. Why is the NAHS embracing a scientifically biased, heavily flawed concept such as the "UL" when ANY substance, even WATER can be toxic at SOME level? Drink enough water and it will burst your stomach wall and kill you. Why aren't you making these points? You're attempting to argue from a very WEAK position, and you're attempting to make COMPROMISES that are unacceptable to consumers. You must argue from a position of STRENGTH, and you can only do that if you acknowledge the falsity of the NAS paper and the "UL" concept. Why are you allowing the cartel to lead you down the primrose path?

Therefore I think that the lobbying process needs to be aimed at the politicians, rather than the SCF. What is important is that the SCF work is properly monitored by industry and that it is supplied with timely scientific information in an appropriate manner.

Ralph- You're supplying the SCF with unscientific information like the NAS paper "A Risk Assessment Model for Establishing Safe Upper Levels for Nutrients" when the whole premise of the paper is grossly flawed, pharmaceutically funded and pharmaceutically biased. That really bothers me. ANY substance, even WATER is toxic at SOME level! Why are you arguing from a position of weakness? Have you READ Malter's rebuttal to the NAS paper? You'll find it at http://www.iahf.com/

I really think that this is primarily a political battle and we need to dedicate our lobbying towards the politicians.

Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Regards,

Ralph Pike
Director
National Association of Health Stores
PO Box 1455
Sheffield
S7 2YD
England

Tel/Fax - 00 44 (0)114 249 5345
Tel - 00 44 (0)114 236 3043
Mobile - 07887 594226

(JH)
Ralph- Have you read Malter's rebuttal to the NAS paper? Have your members read it? Why don't you use Malter's arguments, and Leibovitz's (see the Leibovitz section on the IAHF site http://www.iahf.com so that you can at least argue from a position of STRENGTH! Why are you buying into the other sides scam? Do you grasp the nature of the Hegelian dialectic? First the Pharma Cartel creates the problem: (threat of massive restriction on potency levels), they do that to generate a desired reaction (fear), then they usher in an alleged "solution" (NAS PAPER with the "UL" concept). That bogus concept is then FOISTED OFF on people as the "lesser of two evils" and "the best we can hope for" even though its utter BULLSHIT, and we're supposed to ACCEPT THIS?

Why don't you choose to argue from the STRONGEST POSITION POSSIBLE???

As a consumer of vitamins, I am growing progressively more and more disgusted with the pharmaceutically dominated supplement industries weak efforts to allegedly "fight back" when it is becoming painfully apparent to me that the industry isn't even really TRYING to fight back. Why hasn't the industry made any effort to harness the grass roots power of consumers over there in Europe? The only conclusion I can come to is that they don't WANT to defend health freedom, they WANT these products to be regulated as "drugs" so they only go through the MOTIONS of PRETENDING to fight back.

If you think I'm wrong in any particular in this assertion, please tell me where you think I'm wrong, but please at least READ Malter's rebuttal to the NAS paper, and please at least READ what Leibovitz had to say.....You'll find this information at http://www.iahf.com/. See NAS Paper and Rebuttal, and scroll down to the Leibovitz section at the end of the scroll bar.

Please respond to my questions so we can have a dialogue about this situation. I'm very concerned that if you don't argue from a REAL position of strength to start with, you can't possibly win. You MUST take a stand based on the BEST possible defense against this mindless PRI garbage.

John Hammell