ANH eBlast: Edging towards legal challenge-EU health claims
15th December 2009
Have you noticed the way governments and regulators are working these days?
The once slow and steady erosion of our basic rights and freedoms is gathering a head of steam in many parts of the world leaving the recognisable footprint of political gradualism as a calling card. These freedoms have been hard won by our predecessors and many of us take them for granted. Unfortunately, we can’t any longer.
Have you seen what has been proposed within the unconstitutional Bill C-6 in Canada? Canadians have the power to stop this bill in its tracks if they answer the call to action. And did you hear that leading US constitutional lawyer, Jonathan Emord, is in agreement with the ANH that the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR) is the most serious infringement to freedom of speech that we’ve witnessed in the area of natural health? A legal challenge may be the only way to stop this piece of legislation. The NHCR fails to meet its intended objective of helping the consumer make informed choices. Why? Because, first of all, it looks like a vast array of claims concerning the health benefits of foods and food ingredients (including food supplements) are going to be disallowed by the EU’s highest authority on food safety, the infamous European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). If this weren’t enough, those products for which claims are allowed will all use the same claims, making it almost impossible for consumers to distinguish between different products. This will benefit the cheapest products, produced and sold by the largest manufacturers and retailers. Small companies, the pioneers in the natural health field, will lose out most. And the justification? ‘Consumer protection’ we are told. There is a very high likelihood that many businesses will simply to go to the wall. Without legal challenge, the NHCR sounds the end of emerging science, the end of a choice in healthcare and may leave many with no choice but to use pharmaceuticals. The NHCR—a regulation or a gameplan?
Action to challenge these restrictive laws is crucial if we value our basic human rights and the principles on which most democracies have been founded. Working together we wield massive consumer power. Working together we have the power to initiate change, succeed in legal challenges and preserve some semblance of democracy. This month, two different UK Downing Street ePetitions received an identical meaningless response from the Prime Minister’s Office. This reveals either a startling lack of interest and/or incompetence or more worryingly, an indication of just how little democracy remains. Given that around 64,000 people felt strongly enough to sign the UK petitions, this is perhaps political suicide given the upcoming UK election.
Increasingly, we see governments trying to sneak through legislation at times when citizens are likely to have their attention diverted elsewhere—like Christmas, for example—in the hope that they will escape notice. The Polish parliament has done just that by choosing to have its debate and vote on the new ‘GMO Act’ today, on December 15th 2009. If this goes through, it will legalise the first planting of GM foods on Polish soil and is a classic example of political manipulation and corporate connivance. The Poles have been adamant that they don’t want GM polluting their food, their bodies, their livestock and their countryside, but the powers that be have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to date. We await this result with interest.
A recently published paper in a peer-reviewed journal lays bare the unsavoury reality of conflicts of interest in three European drug regulation agencies—all of which appear to be putting their corporate pro-pharma agendas ahead of genuine (legally proportionate) risk management. Whilst this paper focuses on Europe, it doesn’t mean that the rot isn’t more widespread. Other studies show the hand of Big Pharma behind much of the bias against natural health that we see syndicated across the world’s media.
If you live outside of the EU, you may be breathing a sigh of relief after reading this, but remember that certainly with regard to the natural health industry, it’s the EU legislative template that’s informing Codex Alimentarius, at least in the area of health claims and vitamin/mineral supplements. Through this mechanism, the EU ‘masterplan’ is being exported to the rest of the world. Whilst the signing and ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in Europe means that all EU Member States have effectively handed over ultimate power to the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels (at least with respect to public health issues), our restrictive regime could be coming to a country near you very soon!
Governments should be answerable to its citizens, not large corporations. Do you feel strongly enough about your rights and freedoms to get involved? Visit our ‘Get Involved’ page to read about what you can do and together we will make the difference that matters.
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