To: "Health Freedom, Codex Issues
Subject: Supplement Industry Being Destroyed From Within By Robot Functionaries: See NAHS Letter: Over 2000 UK Health Food Stores Soon to Be Driven Out of Business by EU Vitamin Directive- US is NEXT via Codex
From: John Hammell jham@iahf.com
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 14:15:18 -0500

IAHF List: See the attached file from the National Assn of Health Stores in UK. Its a letter from Ralph Pike to a member of the British Parliament clearly outlining the fact that the EU Vitamin Directive which is coming down in January, threatens to drive 2000 British health food stores out of business, and to cause the removal of many safe dietary supplements from the British market.

The same threat exists for all 15 EU Nations, and via the threatened impact of the EU Directive on Codex, the USA is also threatened as well. There is an immediate need for American supplement companies and health food stores to donate money to the fledgeling EU health freedom movement via Ralph Pike to help them put celebrities on TV in Europe to galvanize grass roots resistance to the EU Vitamin Directive, but its not happening.

Its not happening, because American supplement companies simply do not grasp the fact that our domestic vitamin laws are in fact subject to harmonization to a grossly restrictive emerging international standard.

IAHF was accused yesterday by a brain dead robot functionary from Nature's Plus of "crying wolf" with regards to this issue, but this individual has exerted zero leadership effort to carry a message to Gerry Kessler, CEO of her company even though she has been assigned to be the companies point person on the Codex issue, because she "only met him once for 5 minutes at a company Christmas party" and "doesn't know how to get in touch with him" (and clearly couldn't be bothered with even TRYING to line up a conference call so that the matter could be properly discussed. I asked her if she ever communicated with Steve Inglin, Nature's Plus's Marketing Director who developed their European markets, and she told me "no- I never communicate with him." (And clearly showed no interest in ever BOTHERING to communicate with him for the sake of teamwork on these issues.)

Interesting, eh? Nature's Plus is about to lose most of its European supplement market, the person CEO Gerry Kessler has assigned to walk point on the CODEX issue is making zero effort to communicate with Inglin about this, Inglin does not bother to return phone calls or email, and neither seem the least bit interested in having a conference call with CEO Gerry Kessler about this so that we can discuss it as a group.

What does Natures Plus's Codex point person care? She's collecting a paycheck, has been in the industry all of 4 years and wasn't around prior to passage of DSHEA so she lacks either vision or perspective. Is this individual dedicated to any sort of vigilant protection of your health freedom? Hell no, she is just concerned with keeping a low profile within her company (within which she feels isolated due to its bureaucratic nature),she's collecting a paycheck and sees no reason to make any waves. Any effort to provide genuine leadership would require actual WORK that she's too lazy to bother engaging in, and she, unfortunately, is all too typical of mid level robot functionaries throughout the supplement industry. Most are not outside the box thinkers, and simply are incapable of seeing the big picture.

Due to the extreme arrogance level manifested by this individual who has accused me of "cying wolf" I see no point in attempting any further communication with her.

I attempted to get her to examine the gif file on the IAHF website http://www.iahf.com (click on the spinning green disk) of a letter on congressional letterhead from Congressmen Paul and De Fazio to Burton wherein they indicated that the Congressional Research Service has indicated to them that IAHF's concerns about US dietary supplement laws not being safe from harmonization are quite valid, but Burton ignored them and whitewashed the Codex oversight hearing on March 20,2001 due to pressure from NNFA's pharmaceutically dominated PR firm Parry, Romani, DeConcini and Symms http://www.lobbycongress.com (see list of PRDS's clients which includes Pfizer and numerous other multinational pharmaceutical firms- you would think NNFA members would be angry about this gross conflict of interest, but most pay no attention and just blindly trust NNFA to protect their interests, even though NNFA is being dominated from the top-down by pharmaceutical interests that have been doing spin against my message for years.

The incremental nature of the Codex/EU Vitamin Directive threat to health freedom is such that the American Supplement industry (indeed the global supplement industry) is being led to the cliff piecemeal, and there is almost no leadership within the industry that is trying to fight back. The reason? The supplement industry has abandoned consumers. All they care about is increased marketshare, being able to sell product to more countries via uniform harmonized regs and labelling requirements even if that means not being able to sell high potency vitamins and even if it means lots of products being removed from the market. Don't take my word for it- contact Ralph Pike, Director of the National Assn of Health Stores in the UK, who wrote the informative letter in the attached file, and he'll tell you the same thing. So will Josef Hasslberger, Italian Distributor for Nature's Plus who started the health freedom group La Leva di Archimede http://www.laleva.cc

Ask Ed Fry, Independent Rep for NOW Foods edfry@attbi.com whether or not the company he represents is infested with the same sort of bureaucratic mindlessness as Nature's Plus is on this issue, and a frightening truth will begin to emerge... The American Dietary Supplement Industry is a rudderless ship on autopilot aimed for the CODEX REEF. its Captains of industry are drunk with power, big fish in very small ponds, who are too blind to grasp the fact that they are but minnows soon to be gobbled up by pharmaceutical sharks, but they're too arrogant to fight back, its far easier to just sell out. Principals? Leadership? I'm not seeing it in this industry with the exception of a few very hard working people like Ralph Pike from NAHS in England. He really deserves support from vitamin companies and health food stores from all over the world.

John C. Hammell, President
International Advocates for Health Freedom
POB 625 Floyd VA 24091 USA
http://www.iahf.com 800-333-2553, from overseas and outside N.America:
540-763-3051

Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 18:15:23 +0000
To: Ralph A Pike
From: Ralph A Pike
Subject: Recent Developments

Dear Colleagues,

Please find attached a letter recently sent by the NAHS to all UK MPs.

I would have liked to prepare a formal Bulletin, but I have been so busy
recently that this has been impossible. However, I do hope that the
content of this letter is of some interest to you. The two topics covered
remain the important topics of the moment - for EU countries and others
that might eventually be subject to Codex...

Should you wish for more detailed information, please ask.

As always, please advise if you wish to be removed from this mailing list,
or if you would like someone else to be added.

Regards,

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

Tel & Fax - +44 (0)114 249 5345
Tel only - +44 (0)114 236 3043
Mobile - 07866 317760

The National Association of Health Stores

PO Box 1455, Sheffield, S7 2YD Tel/Fax 0114 249 5345 and 0114 236 3043
e-mail info@nahs.co.uk

Richard Allan Esq, MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

3^rd December 2001

Dear Mr Allan,

Food Supplements Directive
Traditional Medicines Directive

As the only Trade Association for the United Kingdom’s independent specialist health food retailers, we are very concerned about two emerging regulatory threats:

1. The Food Supplements Directive

We understand the Commission’s desire to remove barriers to trade between Member States and reluctantly accepted the original wording of its proposed Food Supplements. However, we are alarmed that an amendment made to the text of the Directive could lead to an unacceptable interpretation of its provisions.

Article 5 of the Directive, requires the setting of pan-European maximum permitted levels for nutrients in supplements. The new wording might allow those permitted levels to be set at or close to the Upper Safe Level (as is currently the situation in the UK) but does not require this. On the contrary, it now specifically provides that "due account" should also be taken of other factors, including outdated and inappropriate concepts of nutritional need.

The UK government accepted the amendment because it argued that a failure to do so could lead to an even worse outcome.

What we now need is a sustained campaign by the UK Government at the Commission, and around the Governments of other EU Member States:

to require the Commission urgently to explain how in practice it intends to interpret the ambiguous provisions of Article 5
to actively promote to other Member States in Europe the benefits of the rigorous safety based approach to regulation used in the UK (this could be done by using the forthcoming report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Vitamins & Minerals as a lobbying tool)
to explore urgently with the Commission and other Member States how to save the over 300 safe nutrients currently on the UK market but not included in the lists of "permitted" ingredients provided for by the Annexes to the Directive
to secure an extension to the 18 month period within which safety dossiers must be submitted for consideration to the EU Scientific Committee for Foods if such nutrients are not to be removed from the market

A failure to address these points will lead to the loss of many safe and popular products and the closure of up to 2,000 health food stores.

2. Traditional Medicines Directive

Recent statements in the House of Commons by Hazel Blears MP that the proposed Traditional Medicines Directive is likely to be adopted by the Commission and to commence its formal legislative progress in the very near future are also grounds for grave concern. We always welcomed the stated objective of successive Ministers to find a secure home in European law for Section 12 herbal remedies, but the text as currently drafted would fail to do this, and would pose a threat to many other products:

the 30 year qualifying period during which a product must already have been on the market (at least 15 years of which must have been in the EU) is too long a period
the testing and product stability requirements imposed by the proposed text are far too onerous, being more appropriate for pharmaceutical drugs than safe natural herbal remedies
the Directive as drafted would leave outside its scope many safe and popular products that are mixtures of safe herbs with nutrients such as vitamins and minerals

This Directive poses a serious threat to the continued free sale of safe and legitimate herbal remedies, and it should be opposed.

Our members would be very grateful indeed for your help in raising these important issues in the House and with Government Ministers.

Yours sincerely,

Ralph Pike
Association Director