- Gaby Hinsliff Political Editor
- Sunday December 26, 2004
- The Observer
-
- Vitamin supplements used by thousands of Britons, from
pregnant women to people warding off winter colds, are to be swept from
shop shelves from the new year under controversial European Union safety
regulations.
-
- Carole Caplin, former style adviser to Cherie Blair,
will front a last-ditch campaign next month to get the directive on food
supplements overturned.
-
- It would affect up to 5,000 products, including best-sellers
such as Solgar's Pre-Natal Nutrients tablets, taken by pregnant and breastfeeding
women; and VM-2000 multi-nutrient pills, a compound of antioxidants. Megadose
vitamins, such as the high-strength vitamin C tablets taken by many to
stave off coughs and sniffles, are also under threat, with new safety standards
to be issued separately early next year.
-
- Campaigners will take their fight to the European courts
in January. However, they say some manufacturers have begun withdrawing
from the legal challenge or started reformulating supplements to ensure
they comply by August, when the directive will become law.
-
- 'We have got to do everything we can to put pressure
on the British government, otherwise British consumers who have used these
products for 40 or 50 years will lose out,' said Sue Croft of the pressure
group, Consumers for Health Choice.
-
- 'People are using supplements as an insurance policy
to keep themselves well. I'm not saying vitamins are a cure-all, but as
a measure to keep somebody in good health, they work.
-
- 'If it's safe, you should be allowed to use it; therefore
I cannot understand why the British government is not fighting our corner.'
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- She said campaigners were also worried about the threat
to megadose vitamins. 'We have a vitamin culture here, and we do take these
high-strength nutrients where good science supports them. That could be
3g of vitamin C for example, where on the continent the highest dose you
can get in some countries is 200mg.'
-
- One in three women takes some form of health food supplement,
particularly during pregnancy or menopause, as does one in four men.
-
- Caplin, who regularly recommends alternative remedies
to clients, is understood to have lobbied the Prime Minister personally.
-
- She has also publicly accused the Health Minister, Melanie
Johnson, of showing a 'distinct lack of care and interest' in the issue.
Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, who has a longstanding interest
in alternative therapies, is also understood to have raised objections
to the directive, which he has described as 'heavy-handed'. Some 180 MPs
have signed a Commons motion expressing 'grave concern' that pills and
powders in common use are to become illegal.
-
- The Food Supplements Directive in effect outlaws health
food preparations containing ingredients not on its 'positive list' of
permitted substances. Manufacturers prepared to draw up a detailed scientific
dossier arguing that their ingredients are proven to be safe are allowed
an extension until 2008.
-
- Campaigners say the 'agreed' list was simply borrowed
from one drawn up for baby foods, and there is no evidence any of the ingredients
are unsafe for adults. They argue Britain is suffering from a culture-clash
with continental countries, which traditionally treat vitamins as akin
to medicines. In Greece they are usually obtained through pharmacists,
while a 'megadose' of vitamin C in Italy can be only one-tenth as strong
as one in Britain.
-
- A Department of Health spokeswoman said: 'We want to
protect public health while keeping wide consumer choice.'
-
- Many doctors are sceptical about megadose vitamins, arguing
that a healthy diet meets most people's needs.
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