To: IAHF List
Subject: IAHF To Do 2 Anti Codex Radio Shows This Week: Hear Both on the World Wide Web (1/9 and 1/10)
From: "International Advocates for Health Freedom" jham@iahf.com
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 00:38:26 -0500

All Webmasters: Please post.

IAHF List:
Due to the fact that the dietary supplement industry world wide is under unprecedented global attack due to the EU Vitamin Directive and Codex, IAHF is pulling out all the stops in an effort to defend the supplement industry and consumers ability to access dietary supplements without a prescription by doing two more anti codex radio shows this week, one tomorrow TUESDAY JANUARY 9th, the other WEDNESDAY January 10th.

IAHF has educated Dr.Gary Null on the issue, and his help is quite timely, given the time sensitivity of the EU Vitamin Directive, and how it stands to impact CODEX. Null did 2 anti Codex radio shows within the past two weeks with help from IAHF to invite guest from all over the world who helped shed light on what is going on, and the audio files from both will soon be put on the new IAHF multi media site at http://IAHF_Media.Tripod.com This site is linked to the main IAHF site at http://www.iahf.com and currently in it you can see the only video footage in the world ever made available outside of a Codex meeting, since Codex forbids videotaping. (For putting this footage on the web, and for his whistleblowing actions against Codex, Hammell was kicked off the US Codex Delegation prior to last June's meeting, for this reason he participated in Dr.Rath's anti Codex counter meeting, march, and street demonstration in Berlin, see video and photos at http://www.drrath.com

ANTI CODEX RADIO SHOW TOMORROW, TUESDAY January 9 CAN BE HEARD ON WEB AT http://www.wpfw.org from 3-4 pm US eastern time or if you live in Washington DC over Pacific radio station WPFW 89.3 FM Gary Null will be interviewing John Hammell of IAHF for a full hour to discuss the Codex Vitamin issue, how it is being covered up, why we have not yet had an oversight hearing, and why one is so badly needed. Null doesn't normally devote so much programming to a single issue, but became convinced of the need to from the last 2 recent anti Codex shows he did, so he has decided more shows are necessary, hence tomorrow's and wednesday's scheduled shows.

ANTI CODEX SHOW CAN ALSO BE HEARD WEDNESDAY January 10 ON THE WEB at http://www.kpfk.org from 3-6 am US West Coast time (6-9 am US east coast time) over Pacifica Radio station KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles on the "Roy of Hollywood Show" with guests Gary Null and John Hammell

WHAT WILL BE DISCUSSED & WHY YOU MUST ALERT MORE PEOPLE!!

American dietary supplement companies, and American vitamin consumers must know that our dietary supplement laws are being set up for harmonization to grossly restrictive international standards currently under development by the UN's Codex Alimentarius Commission. Moreover, you must realize that the EU Vitamin Directive currently under rapid development in the European Union threatens to force all 15 EU nations to walk in lockstep with Germany going into the next Codex meeting in November 2001 in Berlin. (The EU Vitamin Directive could be finalized very soon according to Ralph A. Pike of the National Assn of Health Stores in the UK) Therefor, IAHF urges vitamin consumers world wide to take the following ACTION STEPS to stop this threat:

1) Go to http://www.laleva.org to read and sign the Anti EU Vitamin Directive Petition. Click on "English Version" to see the English translation on this Italian health freedom website of IAHF allied group "La Leva Di Archimede" ("The Lever or Archimedes"). Archimedes once said "Give me a Lever and a Place to Stand, and I shall move the world" IAHF sincerely hopes we have a big enough lever with this petition, and the world EU vitamin consumers are doing to try to dissuade their Members of the European Parliament from signing off on an EU Vitamin Directive that threatens to ban consumer access to vitamins and minerals within the therapeutic range, except by prescription, as well as to health information about these products.

2) Call Congressman Dan Burton, Chair of the House Oversight Committee via the Capital Switchboard at 202-225-3121.

Tell them you want an Oversight Hearing on the Codex Vitamin Issue.

If they attempt to tell you one "isn't necessary" due to a Federal Statute which they allege protects our laws from harmonization to international standards, tell them that you aren't buying that, that Congressman Ron Paul would not have introduced the American Sovereignty Restoration Act for no reason and that it wouldn't have gotten 18 cosponsors last Congress if our sovereign laws were TRULY protected from harmonization to international standards.

(Our domestic laws, including our vitamin laws are NOT truly protected, they only are on PAPER, and the Federal Statute is only a paper tiger: here is why: The WTO can't DIRECTLY force changes to US laws, they do it INDIRECTLY by threatening to impose massive TRADE SANCTIONS against broad segments of our countries economy if we DON'T harmonize our laws.... and no country can afford these trade sanctions.

SAFETY is our ONLY ESCAPE- BUT FDA HAS TAKEN THAT AWAY FROM US BY DECEPTIVE ACT

The only OUT for a country to legally NOT harmonize its laws is on a basis of SAFETY, but the Pharma Cartel has THAT base covered: they've developed a PHONY SAFETY STANDARD designed to be used against us by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body..... This bogus SAFETY STANDARD was illegally put on the table at CODEX by Dr.Beth Yetley of FDA against a written directive by Congressman Dan Burton, and 4 other members of Congress, and you can see it in a gif file at http://www.iahf.com under "Letters from Congress"

You can READ this bogus safety standard at http://www.iahf.com under "NAS PAPER" it is a National Academy of Sciences paper titled "A Risk Assessment Model for Establishing Safe Upper Levels for Nutrients" You can read this paper for yourself, see that it was funded by pharmaceutical interests, you can read the names of the companies and governments that funded it along with them (US and Canada), and you can see that some of the companies that funded it are members of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a vitamin trade association comprised of multinational pharmaceutical interests.

You can ALSO read a very well written REBUTTAL to this NAS paper right under it by Richard Malter, PhD. Malter's rebuttal was published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, and he learned of the issue from being on the IAHF distribution list. You can ALSO read more about this in the "Leibovitz" section of the IAHF website at http://www.iahf.com under the editorial "The ABC's of Confusion as a Weapon" Note: FDA has also just given the NAS $1 Million to produce a "safety study" on dietary supplement ingredients to be completed by 2002. So we're also being set up through that.

QUESTION: If CODEX IS SUCH A THREAT, WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD ABOUT IT FROM MY HEALTH FOOD STORE OR VITAMIN COMPANY?

The reason is that pharmaceutical interests have gotten control of the vitamin trade associations which they are controlling from the top-down, unbeknownst to their rank and file members who are being kept in the dark by a campaign of disinformation. See http://www.crnusa.org and look at their membership list. There you will find Hoffman La Roche, Monsanto and a slew of other multinational corporations. Hoffman La Roche was fined a record $500 Million in '99 by the US Justice Department for engaging in illegal price fixing in the sale of vitamin raw materials. Several other CRN member companies were also fined.

Through Codex, these companies could make MORE money, off LESS product, by having high potency vitamins only available by prescription. They could knock off their smaller competition, DOWNSIZE their vitamin divisions (investors would love it) and they could STOP vitamins from cutting nearly as much into the sale of their OTHER products, the patented pharmaceutical drugs, the proper use of which which now comprises the third leading cause of death in the world.

Two years ago, Gary Null challenged 3 different officials from the National Nutritional Foods Assn to debate John Hammell on the air about the Codex vitamin issue. They refused, so Hammell debated an empty chair. The reason they refused was that they had nothing to refute Hammell's charges that NNFA has been keeping its membership in the dark on the issue by not telling them what they need to know, and by hiding the truth. Hammell was never sued for making statements against NNFA on the air, or in print in an article in To Your Health (NYC, August '99) because his statements were not false. He asserted truthfully that according to NNFA's '98 membership directory, their membership included several pharmaceutical companies including BASF, Rhone Poulenc, AHP and others. He asserted truthfully that NNFA has a conflict of interest bylaw that the trade association was not enforcing. He asserted truthfully that an employee of a pharmaceutical company, Randy Dennin of Capsugel, Subsidiary of Warner Lambert, recently bought out by Pfizer, is Chair of NNFA's International Committee, and that he is also Treasurer of Citizens for Health.

Hammell asserts that former NNFA President Joe Bassett told him that NNFA's International Committee's pro FDA, pro pharmaceutical position on the Codex vitamin issue was "mostly developed by Dennin, and the rest of the Committee just went along with it."

Gary Null called NNFA, told them he was going to have Hammell on the air, and asked Dennin, Reidel, and Ford to debate him. All refused. NNFA had their chance for a clean debate on all of the issues raised by Hammell, including his main point, which is that FDA, with NNFA and CRN's help, is setting the USA up to lose in a trade dispute by taking SAFETY away as our "out". They're doing this by creating an unscientific safety standard in order to set us up for harmonization.

Following Hammell's appearance on the Gary Null radio show, his article in "To Your Health" magazine (an expose) and following a number of questions asked seperately by NOW Foods in a flyer sent to all of the health food stores that sell Nows products which raised questions about CRN, NNFA, and CFH over the Codex vitamin issue (questions which were never answered) NNFA published a spin controlled article in the Sept. '99 issue of NNFA Today which did not address any of the points raised by Hammell, (or others) all it did was do spin control against everything he's been saying, especially the big lie that the Federal Statute 19 USC 3512 (a)(1) and (a)(2) "protect" our laws from harmonization.

On PAPER they do, but the reality,as we've shown above, is far different. Hammell urges further exploration of this matter through the "US LAWS NOT SAFE" section of the IAHF website at http://www.iahf.com and via the website of Global Trade Watch at http://www.tradewatch.org He warns us that unless we get oversight on this issue and Congress takes steps to protect our laws, we will see our access to vitamins and minerals within the therapeutic range end, except by prescription, and we'll see most vitamin companies driven completely out of business.

CRN PRESS RELEASE NOVEMBER 20 CORROBORATES IAHF's POINTS

Furthermore, now CRN has issued a press release at http://www.crnusa.org/shellnr112000.html titled "U.S. and European Leaders Agree on Principles to Harmonize Dietary Supplement Regulations" This article corroborates everything Hammell has been saying. Here it is. Note the statement about creating "Safe Upper Levels" for vitamins.... Be aware that the EU is developing very restrictive standards right now, and that harmonizing US laws to them will destroy consumer access to high potency vitamins except by prescription...... Here is the article.... Be mindful of the fact that the National Academy of Sciences is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, so there is no way to get the CVs of the authors of their papers (which would show conflict of interest due to past and current pharmaceutical grants), and there is no way to get the raw data behind any of their papers. Also be mindful of the fact that the FDA has issued a comments deadline of January 16th for the next set of Codex comments for a meeting that doesn't begin for another 11 months.... There is a dire need for OVERSIGHT, so you MUST call Congressman Burton NOW along with your own Congressman and Senators. Call via 202-225-3121 US Capital Switchboard... Please also sign the Anti EU Vitamin Directive Petition at http://www.laleva.org and put a flyer about this in your health food store. Questions? Call John Hammell, IAHF 800-333-2553 or see http://www.iahf.com

U.S. and European Leaders Agree on Principles to Harmonize Dietary Supplement Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC -- The dietary supplements sector-working group of the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) agreed on several key elements to harmonize the regulatory framework for vitamin and mineral food supplements on both sides of the Atlantic. These major breakthroughs were forged at the Sixth TABD CEO Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, from November 16-18.

The working group approved the principles and components on definition, safety, and GMPs. The working group also agreed to continue its dialogue and that its next steps would be to:

1.Define types of claims and appropriate labeling for food supplements and develop criteria for transatlantic acceptance of credible scientific evidence to substantiate these claims; evaluate mechanisms for authorizing/approving claims; and assess conditions for exclusivity to encourage research and development.

2.Encourage the scientific bodies responsible for the evaluation of the safety of total intakes of vitamins and minerals (EU Scientific Committee on Food and US Food and Nutrition Board) to cooperate closely to harmonize setting upper safe levels for vitamins and minerals.

3.Define and recommend methodologies for setting maximum levels for vitamin and/or mineral food supplements on the basis of upper safe levels of total intake for these nutrients and intakes from other sources. The responsible regulatory bodies are encouraged to cooperate and establish one set of figures for maximum levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements on both sides of the Atlantic.

4.Seek urgently, in light of the imminent proposed US rule on GMPs, transatlantic harmony for implementing common GMPs and quality standards. The working group also agreed to develop practical procedures to support GMP details; and seek acceptance, implementation, and appropriate enforcement.

Progress toward transatlantic harmonization of dietary supplements was led by a team of supplement CEO´s that included: Gale Bensussen, Leiner Health Products Inc.; William Van Dyke, B&D Nutritional Ingredients, Inc.; Johannes Burges, Hermes Arzneimittel; and Sonnich Fryland, Ferrosan. They were among the more than 120 industry leaders from the U.S. and the European Union who called on their governments to adopt a list of progressive trade liberalization measures at this TABD CEO Conference.

The CEO´s, meeting with senior officials form the U.S. Administration, the European Commission, the U.S. Congress, and the European Parliament, made recommendations on how best to boost transatlantic and global trade and investment. They focused on specific mechanisms for resolving trade disputes and expanding the U.S.-EU commercial marketplace, which at $1 billion per day in two-way trade, is the world´s largest trading relationship.

"The recommendations we have developed at this meeting will, if adopted by the governments, expand trade and investment opportunities for large, medium, and small companies by removing obstacles and inefficiencies in the U.S. and European regulatory regimes," said George David, chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corporation and US TABD chair for 2000. "Adoption of these recommendations will create jobs, raise living standards, lower costs and improve access to goods–that is, provide concrete benefits for business, for labor, and for consumers."

The TABD is a results-oriented forum that seeks to increase transatlantic trade and investment opportunities through the removal of costly inefficiencies from excessive regulation, duplication and differences in the EU and U.S. regulatory systems and procedures in a manner consistent with sustainable development.

For details about the dietary supplement sector working group progress and future plans, contact either Issues Manager John Cordaro–USA jcordaro@crnusa.org or Peter Heer–Europe peter.heer@roche.com.