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Edited on Thu Jul-28-11 11:57 AM by HuckleB
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/06/orrin_hatch_the_supplement_industrys_lap.php"Dietary supplements are minimally regulated in the U.S. Indeed, I'm continually amazed at how much supplement manufacturers can get away with and for how long. For example, one of the most recent atrocities against science occurred when Boyd Haley, disgraced chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky and prominent member of the mercury militia wing of the anti-vaccine movement, tried to sell an industrial chelator as a dietary supplement to treat autistic children. True, that was too much even for the underfunded, undermanned FDA to ignore, but it was amazing how long he got away with it. Apparently it takes someone trying to market a chemical compound that can't by any stretch of the imagination be characterized as a nutrient or "food" to be so obviously against even the weak law regulating supplements (the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or the DSHEA) that the FDA could take action.
Of course, I've written several times complaining about the DSHEA. Basically, this law created a new class of regulated entities known as dietary supplements and liberalized the sorts of information that supplement manufacturers could transmit to the public. The result has been this: It also expanded the types of products that could be marketed as "supplements." The most logical definition of "dietary supplement" would be something that supplies one or more essential nutrients missing from the diet. DSHEA went far beyond this to include vitamins; minerals; herbs or other botanicals; amino acids; other dietary substances to supplement the diet by increasing dietary intake; and any concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any such ingredients. Although many such products (particularly herbs) are marketed for their alleged preventive or therapeutic effects, the 1994 law has made it difficult or impossible for the FDA to regulate them as drugs. Since its passage, even hormones, such as DHEA and melatonin, are being hawked as supplements.
One might wonder how such a bad law can survive, but it has its defenders. One man, in particular, defends the DSHEA against all regulatory threats, foreign and domestic. His name is Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and he was just the subject of a writeup in the New York Times the other day entitled Hatch a "Natural Ally" of the Supplement Industry. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/politics/21hatch.html?_r=1 )
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Advocates of unscientific modalities frequently love to bash big pharma and insinuate that legislators are in the pocket of the drug companies. While it is true that pharmaceutical companies are heavy contributors to a number of legislators and wield considerable influence, pro-CAM apologists frequently contrast what they paint as big, soulless, corporations with local, mom & pop "natural medicine" businesses. However, as Orrin Hatch demonstrates, supplement manufacturers have become quite powerful. In some states, they are far more powerful than pharmaceutical companies. There really isn't much in the way of pharma, big or otherwise, in Utah. There are, however, lots and lots of supplement manufacturers of pushing all manner of poorly supported health claims to sell their product. They also have a very powerful patron, too, in Orrin Hatch, and as long as Hatch is in office you can be quite sure that the DSHEA will stand. It might even be weakened.
..."--------------------------------- Just FYI stuff...
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