Distribution and dosage of dietary supplements

The United Kingdom, Holland and Sweden will be particularly hard hit by the Directive because these three countries currently have few restrictions on supplements. When the Directive takes effect, however, thousands of health stores will go out of business as vitamins and herbal supplements will be available only in pharmacies and with a doctor’s prescription.

So, for instance, a middle-aged woman in Liverpool, England, who has a dangerously elevated homocysteine level will no longer have the option of reducing her risk of heart disease with a vitamin B dosage of her own choosing. If she’s currently taking 5 mg of folic acid daily, under the new Directive she will be legally restricted to a prescription of 1 mg per day. If she’s taking a 100 mg dose of B6, she’ll be restricted to 10 mg. And her pantothenic acid (B5) intake of 500 mg will drop to 200 mg. These maximum dosage levels have been chosen to “protect” her (so we’re told), when in fact the protection she needs the most will be unavailable.

So the outlook for the future of dietary supplements in Europe is decidedly gloomy. But if you’re a U.S. citizen and you’re thinking that it can’t happen here – think again.

The U.S. is one of the 165 member countries of the Codex Alimentarius Commission – an international food standards program created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations. The purpose of this commission is to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair trade practices – two of the stated goals of the EU Directive. In fact, as I said above, one of the sources I came across described Codex as a vehicle for “harmonizing” international food trade. Just the sort of “harmony” that we don’t need.

Consider these factors in the association of the U.S. and the Codex Alimentarius Commission:

• The WHO regards all dietary and herbal supplements to be “drugs.”
• The Codex Alimentarius Commission has made it very clear that it wants to limit over-the-counter sales of some dietary supplements while reclassifying others as pharmaceuticals, available only through a pharmacist.
• The U.S. has one vote on the Codex Commission. The European Union represents 27 votes on the commission: the 15 votes of its member countries and 12 votes of the 12 EU candidate countries.
• Under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, Codex decisions override national and local decisions.
• Member countries (including the U.S.) that refuse to “harmonize” with WTO directives may be subject to restrictive trade sanctions, designed to persuade agreements by using severe economic pressure.
• The European Union is the United States’ largest trade and investment partner, with a yearly two-way trade in goods and services that is estimated to be close to $600 billion.