- Part 1
-
- April 29th, 2003 was a cool autumn day in Australia.
To the average Aussie it seemed a day like any other. Most tuned into the
6 o,clock news, aware that history was being made in other countries with
SARS and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But few were aware that something of
historical importance was unfolding in the "Lucky Country". To
seasoned observers who saw it coming it was nothing short of breathtaking
when the near mortal blow to health freedom was finally struck, and for
a while, dissenting voices were stunned into silence. Many pundits expected
other countries to be the more likely targets but like any interesting
social experiment, there was an elegant logic behind the choice. Australians
were historically spared the great upheavals of the twentieth century.
They seemed more trusting, less suspicious of political and corporate agendas
than their counterparts in the northern hemisphere or in Europe where entire
populations still recall the spin-doctoring of totalitarian governments
under the guise of this or that benefit for the public good.
-
- The largest, quickest and most comprehensive recall of
health care products in world history occurred in Australia following an
announcement on Monday April 29th by the TGA that they had served Pan Pharmaceuticals
with an order to suspend its operations for a six month period. The company
supplied 75% of Australia's complementary healthcare products such as nutritional
supplements in the form of vitamins, minerals, omega oils, and herbal products.
Pan also supplied a range of over-the-counter and other drugs, which were
sold under various brand names by other companies. Jim Selim, the founder
and CEO of Pan is an Egyptian born pharmacist who by all accounts has a
passionate belief in natural products and expert knowledge of herbs and
supplements. Selim had single handedly built up his company and within
20 years was the largest supplier of complementary health products in Australia.
His astonishing success catapulted him onto the world stage as the fourth
largest manufacturer of natural health products. Along with this distinction
came some unwanted attention from the multi-national pharmaceutical industry,
which had been lobbying against natural health supplements and products
because of the significant erosion they made into drug company profits.
-
- Studies show that 60% of consumers have spent some of
their health dollars on supplements and natural remedies. Many use natural
products to maintain good health or facilitate recovery from various conditions
after orthodox medicine has failed, as it often does in the case of chronic
illness.
-
- Doctors trained in nutritional medicine as well as qualified
naturopaths, use supplements therapeutically as an adjunct to orthodox
treatments or as wholistic treatments. The science behind natural medicine
has been widely denied by orthodox medicine and is largely kept out of
medical student's curricula. However nutrients have been used and studied
for thousands of years and there is a large body of valid scientific evidence
that shows therapeutic nutrients are highly effective in treating a wide
range of conditions. Most health consumers take supplements because they
perceive a health benefit and are not even aware that there is solid science
behind nutritional therapies. This research is little mentioned in the
media, which nearly always portrays nutritional therapies as being solely
practiced by unqualified quacks. Media disinformation is issued directly
from pharmaceutical company public relations departments on a daily basis
through journalists and industry-sponsored doctors embedded in the media
and other key positions. (8) This has been occurring for over 40 years
and is well documented in the chemical industry archives, documents released
through litigation. (7)
-
- Much of the public confusion on the issue results from
drug industry misinformation, which frequently refers to nutrient supplements
as medicines or even drugs. Nutrients are not drugs. Humans require dozens
of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and antioxidants to
stay alive and healthy.
-
- The body knows how to use these and eliminates the excess
as it has done for millions of years. The need for supplements has increased
recently, after it has been shown that plant-based foods are now grown
on barren and demineralised soils, which do not supply plants with optimum
nutrients. Humans then eat nutritionally deficient plants. Orthodox doctors
claim the standard western diet contains all we need and additional supplements
are flushed down the toilet,. This view appears to be myopic or at least
poorly informed, given that 75% of all Australian deaths are a result of
lifestyle factors. This includes poor diet and the resulting nutritional
deficiencies.
-
- On the other hand, drugs are mostly synthetic chemicals.
There are many drugs that are life saving and beneficial when prescribed
responsibly. But the massive proliferation of drugs has given rise to a
statistic, which the multi-national pharmaceutical industry attempts to
hide. Dangerous or inappropriate pharmaceutical drug treatments and medical
interventions have now become the third leading cause of death.
-
- The "problem" for the pharmaceutical industry
is twofold. Healthy people avoid consuming pharmaceuticals. Illness generates
profits to drug companies, mainly through their exclusive sale of patented
drugs. Wellness and preventative medicine has been less profitable for
the multinational drug industry because smaller companies like Pan and
many other vitamin companies formulate and sell most of the world's nutritional
and vitamin products. Nutrients and herbs are naturally occurring substances
and therefore cannot be patented unless their structure is changed through
genetic engineering or chemical processes. Pharmaceutical industry PR departments
and industry-funded scientists have been behind unnecessary herb and vitamin
scares, citing lack of uniformity or actual danger to persons who take
supplements. Subsequently some natural products have been withdrawn from
sale while massive drug and biotech multi-nationals work behind the scenes
to chemically alter and patent natural substances as pharmaceuticals. In
Australia alone the increasing popularity of natural products has deprived
the global pharmaceutical market of 2 billion dollars annually. This has
brought in its wake an accelerating clampdown on complementary medicine
(using natural products).
-
- The drug industry is worth trillions of dollars worldwide
and it has some powerful friends.
-
- In January 2003, the TGA moved to recall Travacalm, Pan's
over-the-counter travel sickness tablet when it was tested and found to
be defective. After the January recall, Pan discovered a problem with one
of its analysts whom the company claimed was responsible for the lapse
in quality control over the defective product. The company dismissed the
analyst, and set out to correct the problem with its recalled product,
while continuing to manufacture its other unaffected product lines. So
far the protocol followed normal procedure for a recall, a commonplace
occurrence even in the multi-national pharmaceutical industry.
-
- However, neither Jim Selim nor Pan's board members anticipated
the special attention they were about to receive from the TGA. The company
had become used to the regular TGA inspections in the previous few years
and neither Pan nor the TGA found any serious cause for concern. In fact,
Pan's vitamin and herb factory had been inspected more often and more rigorously
than the Australian-based operations of multi-national pharmaceutical drug
companies. However, after January the TGA conducted a number of audit raids
on Pan which foreshadowed trouble. In April, the TGA shut down Pan's entire
operation and slapped a class 1 recall over 1369 Pan products which were
unrelated to Travacalm. This involved mostly vitamins, minerals and herbal
products, which the company supplied to over 75% of the complementary health
care market. The regulator cited serious concerns as to the quality, safety
or effectiveness of these natural remedies. Class 1 recalls are only issued
when it has been shown that the product is likely to cause serious, irreversible
health damage or death. By its extreme action of issuing a class 1 recall,
the TGA indicated to the general public that the calcium tablet or vitamin
C or Echinacea or chamomile or any other of the 1369 natural products they
had been taking without any problems, are now expected to cause death or
irreversible health damage. Many consumers questioned this logic when they
had experienced no adverse health effects from the supplements they had
already taken. Those whose suspicions were aroused were even more surprised
that the TGA had not given specific information about the nature of the
problem with the products. Then Mayne Health, a large health care company
whom Pan supplied with health care products, stated that their company
had regularly conducted their own rigorous testing of Pan's product and
had not found a cause for concern. The TGA offered no explanation as to
why an independent distributor of Pan's products could find no problem
on testing when the regulator claimed there was a life-threatening problem.
-
- During the week of the shock announcement, the TGA left
its responsibilities as a provider of accurate and useful public information,
to the daily tabloids who rushed to fill the information vacuum with headlines
such as; Honeymoon Ruined, Babies in Danger, It's a Sick Business, Bad
Medicine. By the end of the week the TGA had still not explained the specific
problem and which of the vitamin company's products were affected and in
what way. Instead they stood by as the press had a field day whipping up
the story while the more vulnerable consumers of health care products,
elderly people and young mothers, panicked and imagined all types of horrific
scenarios. The interim week saw a run on 5000 health food stores which
reported an influx of panicked customers demanding refunds for all manner
of products, even those they,d fully consumed, and those that were out
of date. Some demanded money for taxi fares. The TGA remained tight lipped
about the offending substance that had allegedly rendered these supplements
life threatening overnight. Instead, the regulator issued numerous public
announcements stating that; "drugs and pharmaceuticals are perfectly
safe and persons should keep on taking them". The NSW State Premier
chimed in with his own message to that effect.
-
- By the end of the week the dailies continued running
weekend feature stories about the grave dangers of taking vitamins. The
conundrum sent freelance and independent researchers scurrying to their
computers to research product recalls. A short search of the FDA drug recall
list and medico-legal websites, list thousands of recalls, adverse events
and warnings pertaining to drug and chemical products manufactured by multi-national
drug and chemical companies. Many of the listed products are known to be
either dangerous or toxic to humans and even carcinogenic. Multi-national
drug company recalls are rarely given much press, and have never been given
as much negative media attention as Pan had received. Even more incredibly,
no large multi-national company has ever been shut down by a government
regulator after one of its products has been recalled, even if deaths have
occurred as a result of using the drug or chemical. This discovery was
guaranteed to make any independent journalist even more curious about the
TGA and the vitamin company.
-
- In the second week, Pan stocks plummeted and other companies
scrambled to fill the manufacturing gap while their share prices surfed
a rising wave. The mainstream media had settled into the role of investigators
and de-facto TGA spokespersons, breathlessly informing the public of the
"facts" behind the "vitamin scandal". "Snake Oil
Jim Quits.." screamed the tabloids, while the "prestigious"
Sydney Morning Herald ran the story; "Tangled Tale of Lucky Jim",
a vicious little expose` of Selim's daughter and her 1997 battle with drugs.
Any parent would consider it a tragedy to watch their child suffer from
the disease of addiction, let alone have it published in the newspaper.
The journalists Mercer and Stevenson used a psychologist's report to speculate
on Jim Selim's shortcomings as a parent. Hardly a need-to-know issue for
the Australian public who had still not been informed as to the results
of the regulator's testing of the 1369 urgently recalled products. Not
surprisingly, Jim Selim voluntarily resigned as CEO from his own company,
amidst one of the most vicious tabloid vilification campaigns in the history
of the Australian press.
-
- While grannies thought they had been poisoned, Australia's
investigative journalists wrote about interviews with disgruntled employees
who thought they should have had longer breaks and the production should
have been slower at the vitamin factory. The dailies stated opinion as
gospel while offering no real facts from the TGA. While the thinking public
waited for the facts, young mothers still thought they had poisoned their
babies. The tabloids made fun of Jim Selim and columnists wrote ditties
about vitamins and herbs being "eye of newt". Embedded industry-sponsored
TV journalists worked feverishly behind the scenes to spin horror exposés
about herbs and vitamins that were screened within a week of the breaking
news. And still no one had suffered any adverse effects from having taken
vitamins. Embedded "experts" emerged from the closet with their
editorials, published under the guise of objective articles. Still the
TGA remained silent about the exact reason why the natural products were
classed as being capable of causing death. Pundits assumed TGA was checking
all recalled products just as they had checked Travacalm and made public
the exact nature of the problem.
-
- By the end of the week Jim Selim, once a man with a zest
for life, had been forced to leave his home after journalists crawled all
over his garden by day and night. They interviewed his neighbours, one
of whom complained that the Selim family had visitors who banged the gate
when they left. The other complaint was about the noise when the family
swam in their pool. The facts gleaned by the reader from this in-depth
investigative journalism were that the Selims had friends and they indulged
in occasional exercise. By week's end the Selim family retreated to parts
unknown, amidst Jim's friend's concerns that "he is in a very bad
way."
-
- While the media was beating itself to death with the
vitamin factory story, a little known posting appeared in an obscure place
on the TGA website. The regulator is also in charge of being a public watchdog
with respect to food, chemicals and consumer items. On the same day as
the TGA recalled Pan products, they also issued another recall. A smallgoods
company packaged a large quantity of ham, which was found to be contaminated
with bacteria known to cause serious food poisoning, which sometimes results
in death. The media never mentioned this, and there were no public press
releases issued by the TGA.
-
- At the end of the second week following the world's largest
recall, the TGA had still released no results of their product testing
to Australian consumers or the thousands of businesses that relied on accurate
information. But many of the 5000 or so Australian health food store proprietors
were about to start the cascade into insolvency. To hasten the process,
they were forced by the consumer watchdog ACCC to issue consumer refunds
when they had no guarantee of reimbursement by the now ailing manufacturer.
Health food shops were left saddled with the difference between the wholesale
and retail price, which they had to find out of their own pockets. With
their backs to the wall they still had precious little by way of an explanation.
However, TGA did issue clear instructions to clear shelves of recalled
product. Now, virtually overnight natural products disappeared leaving
many shops bare.
-
- The largest mountain of vitamins, minerals, oils and
herbs in the world was hurriedly designated for destruction by the Australian
Government in a special location and using a special process usually reserved
for toxic waste. The evidence is destined for destruction. The TGA has
still not informed the public as to why their natural products were classified
as being deadly, when no one had previously suffered adverse effects. The
regulator has released no test results. It is not known if tests were ever
conducted. When the mountain of vitamins finally rests in its mass grave,
incinerated and entombed as the remains of what the Australian government
regards as toxic waste, we will never know. And the epitaph on the headstone
could well read; "Here Lies Health Freedom".
-
- Among the mystery and intrigue surrounding this historical
event, one thing appears to be certain. Had any test shown a lethal toxicity
supporting a class 1 recall, the TGA would have told us by now.
- Unlike some issues that rest in peace, the ghost of this
recall will haunt the government for years to come. The story of the recall
started years ago in a bustling European city. But first, a little more
about the regulator.
-
- Part 2
-
- TGA "Protecting the Health and Safety of All Australians"
-
- Like its US FDA counterpart, the Australian TGA states
that it "is obligated to take action where there is concern in relation
to the quality, safety and effectiveness of medicines." The regulator
also oversees the safety of food and chemical products as well as consumer
items and medicines. The TGA states its role is to "protect the health
and safety of all Australians." However, an audit of the regulator's
performance reveals an astonishing picture.
-
- TGA Regulating Chemicals
-
- In 1999, a woman lodged a complaint with the TGA about
a chemical product that she had used, as directed on the label. Using this
product had caused her to be violently ill and she required hospital treatment.
She was pregnant at the time of the toxic exposure. Serious health effects
became apparent as a result of the poisoning, affecting both the woman
and her child for many years. Both were subsequently diagnosed with chemical
poisoning by two Australian doctors and one U.S. specialist physician.
She reported this to the then director of the Chemicals and Non-prescription
Medicines Branch of the TGA, Mr. Graham Peachey. The director replied to
her complaint, claiming that all chemicals are rigorously tested and regulated
by Australian government departments. He maintained that her claim that
this chemical product had caused serious illness was a result of "a
strong interaction with personal belief factors". By this, he dismissed
her complaint, alleging that she was imagining the (medically diagnosed)
serious effects the chemical exposure had on herself and her child. The
woman wrote back enquiring as to what kind of testing is done by the regulators
on toxic chemicals that are manufactured by large multi-national companies
and that stream directly onto the Australian market. She received no reply.
She later found out that no independent testing of any kind is done on
these products before they reach the consumer. Meanwhile she encountered
others who,d had similar experiences with the same chemical and other toxic
consumer products. She discovered that they too had written letters of
complaint to the TGA, and they had received the same response. She joined
a support group for chemically injured persons, and became the group's
newsletter editor. Soon she was inundated with letters from persons who
related the identical or similar responses from the TGA after they had
lodged complaints to the regulator about harmful effects from toxic chemicals
in consumer products. Intrigued, she investigated these allegations and
found that the TGA had dismissed all of them. None of these dozens (and
possibly thousands) of complaints alleging serious and sometimes life threatening
effects on consumers by various chemical products were ever investigated
by the TGA. The multi-national chemical manufacturers were never held accountable
and the TGA never co-operated with calls to start an adverse events register
for chemical products despite years of lobbying by individuals, advocates
and support groups.
-
- TGA Regulating Drugs
-
- Like its U.S. FDA counterpart, the TGA regulates and
approves drugs. Ten years ago in 1994 there were 157.5 million prescriptions
issued annually. That figure has now increased exponentially as hundreds
of new drugs have come on line. It would be reasonable to assume that a
large part of the huge modern TGA building in Canberra would be devoted
to ensuring public safety through monitoring of potent pharmaceutical drugs.
However more oversight committees and manpower is devoted to herbs and
vitamins. Why? A quick overview of just one drug regulating example will
yield some disturbing answers and raise even more questions.
-
- In the mid 1980's GlaxoSmithKline marketed buproprion
as an antidepressant, released under the brand name of Wellbutrin and later
Zyban. In 1986 bupropion was briefly withdrawn due to the high rate of
convulsions associated with its use, and later inexplicably returned to
the marketplace. By 2002 bupropion was recognised as the third most common
cause of drug related seizures with cocaine found to be the number one
cause (2). Buproprion is often placed in the same category as Prozac type
drugs, but its exact mode of action remains unclear after many years of
study. Since 1998, statistics indicated some serious adverse effects were
occurring among patients taking the drug. Complaints were flowing in to
Health Canada, to the UK regulator and to the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline.
The company had received 1127 adverse reports about the drug from Canada
alone between May 1998 and May 28, 2001. This included 19 deaths. Meanwhile
the Medicines Control Agency, UK's version of the FDA/TGA, reported 3,457
adverse reaction reports to the drug including 18 deaths. Since then there
have been 7,500 adverse reactions and 58 deaths in the UK up to April 2002.
-
- In 2000, GlaxoSmithKline lodged an application to the
TGA to approve bupropion, to be marketed in its new guise, not as an antidepressant,
but as an anti smoking drug called Zyban. By then the drug had collected
a number of skeletons in its closet. The drug had enjoyed another life
as a weight loss pill, and was written up in an Obesity Journal as being
a fat buster, since loss of appetite had been determined in 3% of the side
effects reported while in use as an antidepressant. However, the "research"
was far from ethical, as it was commissioned and paid for by the drug's
manufacturer. (3,4) Shortly after the pharmaceutical giant lodged its drug
application to the TGA in Canberra the regulator commenced its stringent
"pre-market evaluation" of bupropion, now known as Zyban. The
registration process involved an in depth assessment of the drug, its efficacy,
and safety. The regulator was required to review the adverse effects including
convulsions and death associated with the drug's use overseas, figures
that were by then readily available. While the TGA was still busy "protecting
the health and safety of all Australians" with its rigorous safety
assessment of the drug, the global death toll was still escalating. By
mid 2002 the manufacturer had already received reports of 245 deaths associated
with the use of this drug. (5)
-
- After the TGA experts finished their stringent review
of bupropion, now marketed Zyban, the drug enjoyed the approval of the
Australian regulator. It was introduced into Australia late in 2000, and
extensively promoted to doctors as an anti smoking drug (1).
-
- The Australian Zyban experience proved to be tragically
identical to the reported overseas experience. Not long after TGA approved
its use in Australia serious reports of adverse reactions started to pour
into the TGA's adverse drug reactions advisory committee ADRAC. Since Zyban's
approval, 1237 reports of adverse reactions linked to Zyban, have been
reported to the TGA, including: 74 episodes of convulsions/twitching, psychiatric
effects such as depression and anxiety, serious skin rashes including a
serum sickness type syndrome, impotence, chest pain. And 18 Australians
died. (1)
-
- When complaints came into the adverse drug advisory committee
about Pan's Travacalm after persons experienced sedative and other side
effects from the product, the TGA perhaps understandably applied a class
1 recall, even though there were no irreversible effects or deaths. (Class
2 recall is in case of adverse events that are reversible or mild, and
class 3 recalls are reserved when no serious adverse events are expected
to occur) Oddly the vitamins included in this recent haul attracted a Class
1 recall when no effects at all had been reported.
-
- However, despite the high numbers of adverse events and
deaths, the TGA has no serious concerns about the safety of Zyban. To protect
the health and safety of all Australians the regulator will review "each
report with a fatal outcome" through its ADRAC (adverse drug reactions
advisory committee), which meets every six to seven weeks and "is
keeping the drug's safety under close review." The committee's experts
are not certain as to whether the deaths and serious side effects are caused
by the drug or are "coincidental." (1)
-
- While the TGA is still "reviewing" and "monitoring"
the ever-increasing death toll linked to an apparently dangerous drug,
it has acted immediately to affect a class 1 recall of a calcium supplement,
which it recalls "Due to serious concerns". Calcium is a naturally
occurring mineral that is required for good health on a daily basis, and
no one has ever died from it. Closely followed by a class 1 recall of 1369
other natural supplements.
-
- The regulator has no plans to withdraw Zyban from the
Australian market. It is not the only dangerous drug widely prescribed
and approved by the TGA. 10,000 fatal events occur annually in Australia,
attributed to medical procedures and drug associated deaths. Most of these
deaths could have been avoided if the regulator recalled the drugs that
caused deaths and left the vitamins and nutrients essential to life available
to the public.
-
- The disturbing questions raised by this paradox must
now be answered.
-
- Part 3
-
- WHO owns the TGA?
-
- Each year delegates gather in a European city to convene
the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The first commission was convened in
1963 as a joint effort between the UN and the WHO (world health organization).
Since that time the Codex delegates have overwhelmingly represented large
multi national pharmaceutical companies and government regulating authorities
including the FDA and TGA.
-
- The delegates are determining an eight-step guideline
that is already being implemented in many countries of the world. The Codex
guidelines are intended to prevent the further sale of supplements and
herbs and to regulate them as drugs to be manufactured solely by drug companies.
-
- In accord with the Codex guidelines, supplements are
being slowly withdrawn from the public domain.
- There are no representatives of small vitamin manufacturers
and retailers at Codex meetings and health supplement consumers are not
represented, as they are not eligible to attend. There is no press allowed
during these meetings. Each successive meeting at the Codex commission
advances the coming agenda to set worldwide guidelines on vitamins, supplements
and herbs. The full restriction of supplements and herbs is enacted as
an eight-step process and begins with seemingly innocent changes that the
regulator adopts at first. Finally each country is brought closer to full
harmonisation when the consumer can no longer access supplements or herbs.
-
- The guidelines include the setting of recommended daily
intake (RDI) levels of supplements, which are set so low as to make therapeutic
doses or prophylactic doses of supplements impossible and technically illegal.
Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark have already harmonised to step 5.
Once harmonised, the codex recommendation, becomes enshrined in that country's
statutes and laws are strictly observed. One Scandinavian vitamin supplier
was chased by the federal police for supplying vitamin C tablets that exceeded
200 mg. The amount of vitamin C contained in three oranges had made this
man a criminal. Canada has recently harmonised with Codex, with its regulator
withdrawing nearly half of the stocks in health food stores overnight.
Possession of one popular supplement DHEA in Canada now attracts the same
penalties as crack cocaine. The Canadian regulator is empowered to classify
any substance as a drug and it makes no difference if that substance is
a food that has been consumed for millions of years and is perfectly safe.
That product can be recalled or removed from the market.
-
- As Codex continues its march, herbs are increasingly
classed as drugs with restricted access. Germany has already complied fully
by regulating all supplements and herbs as drugs. In a country with an
age-old tradition of natural medicine, no one can freely access these products
now. This is designed to assist drug companies in their technology of PharmaPrinting,
which produces versions of herbs that will be standardised and patented
by drug companies and approved by government regulators as drugs. In a
press release six years ago, the WHO has announced its collaboration with
PharmaPrint, a California based Biotech Company, which has already started
to standardise useful herbs such as Gingko, St. John's Wart, Valerian and
many others. (9)
-
- Once patented, useful Herbs will then be banned and removed
from the public domain, even for garden use. There has already been a Federal
police raid carried out on a couple in northern NSW who planted a Chinese
herb in their garden to use as tea. (10)
-
- For the time being, all herbs and supplements have now
been allocated DIN (drug identification numbers) which many regulators
have now adopted and implemented in their respective countries as they
gradually harmonise with the codex "recommendations". Australian
TGA officials have distributed much of this DIN software to other countries.
The TGA is in the process of pressuring New Zealand to adopt similar restrictive
standards as are currently in Australia. Graham Peachey, the one time director
of the chemicals and non-prescription medicines branch of the TGA has taken
over the task of persuading NZ to harmonise to the same level as Australia.
That includes the prohibition of any therapeutic claim made with respect
to nutritional supplements, even if there exist medical studies to support
those claims. So far NZ has resisted moves in that direction, placing value
on health freedom for its citizens. However, failure to implement these
Codex standards will result in sanctions against governments by the WTO.
-
- There is a fortune to be made by multinational drug companies
solely controlling the manufacture and sale of all life sustaining natural
products. Many doctors and health freedom advocates are deeply disturbed
by these events. Dr. Matthias Rath, a medical specialist in nutritional
medicine demonstrated that nutritional supplements reversed many conditions
including heart disease. He states. "If the Codex Commission is allowed
to obstruct the eradication of heart disease by restricting access to nutritional
supplements, more than 12 million people world-wide will continue to die
every year from premature heart attacks and strokes. Within the next generation
alone, this would result in over 300 million premature deaths, more than
in all the wars of mankind together."
-
- Codex has been a well-kept secret for many years. However,
lately word has spread and thousands of health conscious and informed people
are protesting against the disappearance of health freedom. People are
demanding their right to stay healthy in open demonstrations around the
world. For countries that have already harmonised, it is too late to reverse
this blow to health freedom in the near future. However, greater awareness
is gathering strength globally and those with agendas are running out of
time to implement their total control over God's garden and over the citizens
of those countries that haven't yet fully harmonised.
-
- Back to Pan
-
- It seems an extraordinary stroke of luck for the TGA
that half the supplement stocks have been swept away into a toxic waste
incinerator while the media manufactures public consent for the regulator
to clamp down on the vitamin industry with tighter controls. "Clean
up the industry" the public demands. "Standardise herbs".
"Tighten up the regulations", demand those who know nothing of
the global agenda, and the same cry is heard from those who know the plan.
Many senior TGA officials have deep ties to WHO. News of Pan travels fast.
It was posted in Geneva the day after it was announced to Australians.
-
- We would be well advised to watch the developments from
now on. And to speak up while we still can. We are nearing midnight, just
a few short steps away from "harmonising" with the needs of a
very powerful cadre of individuals. It was Benito Mussolini who said, "Fascism
should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger
of state and corporate power."
-
- In the lucky country, people still believe Benito lived
a long time ago in a land far away.
- The author asserts copyright, but this article may be
distributed for non-commercial purposes. For any other purpose please contact
the author at; evehillary@smartchat.net.au
-
- About Eve Hillary
-
- Eve Hillary is based in Sydney. She a medical writer
and researcher into issues pertaining to the health care industry and environmental
health. She specializes in documenting the human impact of the politics
of multinational medical and biotech corporations, covering issues such
as emerging epidemics, gene pollution, chemical pollution, government regulators
and the role of the media.
-
- She is the author of Children of a Toxic Harvest: An
Environmental Autobiography, and numerous articles relating to environmental
health issues. Her most recent book is Health Betrayal; Staying away from
the sickness industry. She is also a public speaker.
-
- Eve has spent 25 years in health care where she has observed
the medical industry at first hand from the inside.
-
- Knowledge is power, and Eve's primary objective is to
return this power to the individuals whose lives depend on it. She uncompromisingly
believes that knowing the facts about health care is a right that belongs
to the public.
-
-
- References and Sources
-
- (1) TGA website www.health.gov.au/tga/docs/html/zyban
- (2) Journal of Emergency Medicine 2002 April; 22(3):235-9J
- (3) Obes Res 2002 Jul:10(7):633-641)
- (4) Health Policy Journal Health Affairs. 9/7/2002
- (5) CSM: Zyban safety update, 11 April 2002
- (6) Legal Consumer Guide www.legalconsumerguide.com
- (7) www.chemicalindustryarchives.org
- (8) Eve Hillary, Health Betrayal, Synergy Books, 2003
- (9) www.tetrahedron.org/articles/codex
- (10) Beware Therapeutic Goods Act Proposed changes. By
Susan Drew Rasmussen
- Sources:
-
- Anyone wanting to inform themselves of these issues should
access the website of John Hammell, a prominent health freedom advocate,
founder of the International Advocates for Health Freedom
- www.iahf.com
-
-
- Additional Sources:
- http://ahha.org/codexbuchanan.htm
- http://www.dr-rath-foundation.org/vitaminbattle/stopcodex.htm
-
- THOUGHT FOR TODAY . . . . .
- "THE WORLD IS A DANGEROUS PLACE TO LIVE'
- NOT BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE EVIL,
- BUT BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT
IT"
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