EU Supplements Directive What does the decision mean?

With friends like the British Dietetic Association (BDA), who needs enemies?

That was my first thought when I read the comments made by a BDA spokesperson in reaction to the recent news about the European Union (EU) directive on dietary supplements. In a nutshell: A surprise European court ruling found the directive to be valid. As a result, next month's (1st August) scheduled implementation of the European Union directive will go ahead on schedule. And I'll tell you the good news/bad news about that in a moment.

But first, let's go to the BBC...

Regulating supplements
A BBC report on the court decision noted that when the EU directive goes into effect the proposals 'will ban around 200 supplements from sale and put restrictions on the upper limits of vitamin doses.'

These supplements have been on sale for decades without causing widespread harm...but never mind. Regulation fever is running high. And that's just peachy with the British Dietetic Association.

BDA spokesperson Ursula Arens told the BBC that the changes wouldn't greatly inconvenience consumers. She said, 'About 99 percent of products will not be affected.'

With all due respect to Ms. Arens, she's simply making that number up. She has no way of accurately predicting how may products will be affected because the EU has not yet set the maximum permitted dosage levels. When these levels are proposed sometime next year, there's a very good chance that far more than one percent of all supplements will be affected.

A couple of howlers
Meanwhile, the BDA is all for regulating dosage levels. Why? According to the BBC, the organisation is 'concerned about patients admitted to hospital suffering liver failure and severe stomach problems after taking high doses of vitamins.'

Oh PLEASE! I would LOVE to see the official statistics on the number of patients who have suffered liver failure and severe stomach problems from high vitamin doses. I'm willing to bet my house, my car and my dog that we'd be looking at one or two patients per year - if that! You want genuine risk of liver failure? Try over-the-counter paracetamol (acetaminophen), which is responsible for about 100 deaths per year. Severe stomach problems? Just down a few nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

And here's another howler the BBC attributes to the BDA: 'In some cases the supplements are preventing people getting the correct treatment for other chronic illness.'

What!? Someone please tell me how in the world supplements 'prevent' consumers from getting correct treatment. And is Ms. Arens actually suggesting that the regulation of just one percent of all supplements will correct this terrible wrong?

And what exactly is 'correct treatment'? That wouldn't by any chance be code for 'prescription drugs' would it?

It wasn't broken
Ms. Arens' comments on the EU directive are contradicted by a statement from the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA) and the National Association of Health food Stores (NAHS). These organisations have brought a joint suit against the EU Commission, stating that the directive may threaten as many as 5,000 supplement products now on the market.

Time will tell whose prediction is correct, the BDA's or the HFMA/NAHS's. One thing is certain, however: We WON'T know next month when the directive goes into effect. Just like any true regulatory bureaucracy, 'going into effect' doesn't actually mean 'going into effect.' Supplement makers will have until December 2009 to conform to the directive. And of course the stipulations of dosage upper limits won't be confirmed for months or even years to come.

As harsh as these restrictions may seem for consumers, there is a little bit of good news here. Italy, Spain, Poland and other EU countries currently have extremely strict supplement regulations that will be eased considerably when the directive eventually takes effect. So it appears that some may win but some will definitely lose when the EU bureaucrats finally succeed in 'harmonising' regulations.

The Alliance for Natural Health is continuing to follow the outcome of the decision on their website http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/