- Ministers were accused of hypocrisy yesterday over an
EU directive which could force health shops to stop selling a number of
remedies and food supplements used by cancer sufferers and obese people.
-
- The row is over attempts by the EU to ban food supplements
and vitamin-based products which could be harmful in large doses, and for
which the makers have made exaggerated health claims. But campaigners including
Carole Caplin, the self-styled health and lifestyle guru, and the actress
Jenny Seagrove say hundreds of remedies will be included in the ban.
-
- Ms Caplin told MPs at a protest meeting that the directive
will ban the sale of supplements containing calcium, magnesium and boron
used for strengthening brittle bones and by patients with hip replacements;
nutrient supplements and antioxidants for cancer sufferers; food supplements
to reduce obesity; and folic acid supplements for women to reduce neural
tube defects such as spina bifida in babies.
-
- Health ministers have assured consumers, retailers and
manufacturers of health foods that they are doing all they can to ensure
safe remedies are not banned.
-
- But EU documents obtained by The Independent reveal that
the Government's lawyers have said the UK does not dispute the basis for
the new regulations that threaten the sale of many health food products.
-
- In a submission to the European Court of Justice, where
a case is being heard, officials from the Treasury solicitor's office said
the new rules were not disproportionate and did not breach the principle
of subsidiarity, which allows the UK to determine its own rules.
-
- Furious campaigners accused the Government of hypocrisy.
Sue Croft, the director of Consumers for Health Choice, said: "The
Government is saying one thing to consumers, to industry and to Parliament
while pursuing quite a different course in its negotiations with the EU."
-
- The organisation is threatening to raise the issue in
marginal Labour seats in the general election to put pressure on the Government.
-
- Ms Caplin told MPs the Government had said it was committed
to improving public health but its strategy was made a nonsense by ignoring
the threat to safe and effective products.
-
- Ms Seagrove said EU officials have professed profound
scepticism at the suggestion that there were up to 300 missing nutrients
from its approved list. She accused the Health minister, Melanie Johnson,
of having "no interest in supplements" saying she had "consistently
failed to act on behalf of the 21 million British consumers who use them".
-
- The Food Supplements Directive will outlaw products containing
ingredients not on its list of permitted substances. The list was drawn
up for baby foods. The campaigners say there is no evidence that the ingredients
are unsafe for adults. But the UK lawyers said the list was a "suitable
starting point" for the regulations.
-
- Chris Grayling, the Tory health spokesman, who is backing
the campaigners, said: "This is sheer hypocrisy by the Government."
-
- Ms Johnson, who has led the negotiations with the health
food industry, said the UK could exempt products, if a detailed dossier
reasoning why was submitted by the manufacturers. But all the ingredients
that might be exempted must have been on the market before the directive
was adopted in July 2002, she said.
-
- The directive lists 28 vitamins and minerals and 112
sources from which they were derived for use in food supplements, which
can be sold legally after it comes into force on 1 August.
-
- ©2005 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. All rights reserved
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=597349
|