Summary
Do you want the Alliance for Natural Health to continue fighting for your
right to choose natural healthcare? If you do, then we need urgent funding to
continue successfully challenging and shaping regulation in Europe and beyond. The
Alliance is YOUR envoy. It can only be as effective as YOU want it to be.
ANH has achieved remarkable things. But the European Food Supplements
Directive is only the beginning. There is a raft of other legislation and
guidelines in the pipeline that seriously threaten natural healthcare.
“This is a serious organization with serious challenges to address that is
in need of serious funds. It’s supported by many doctors. But it also needs the
support of consumers – they are the ones who drive this. To negotiate and
modify all this legislation requires experts in science, nutrition and law.
Inevitably this costs money.” Dr Damien Downing, a medical doctor and one of
the UK’s leading practitioners in nutritional medicine.
“ANH has existed to date on a shoestring and with the plethora of global
regulation in the wings it will not be able to continue to be effective on this
basis. The ANH is neither selling or buying anything. But we – the
manufacturers and the consumers – are. It’s our fight. It is our house that is
on fire and it is down to all of us to ensure that we help ANH to help us.” Greg
Watts, Managing Director, Ultralife
“Just because ANH has achieved initial success with its challenge to the
Food Supplements Directive many people simply assume that it is a well-funded
and well-resourced organization. The ANH is NOT a rich, well-funded
organization. It is amazing what it has achieved with such a small team of
dedicated people, many working in a voluntary capacity, who have given up their
own time and in many cases, given up secure, well-paid jobs to fight for this
cause." Adrian Shaw, IKON Associates, PR advisers to ANH
Where do funds need to be spent?
• Cost of administration and core staff needed to run a
global campaign organization ·
• Legal fees, to challenge and positively shape bad and
unjustified legislation and ensure that it is based on good science and good
law, using the world’s leading European lawyers ·
• Groundbreaking technical, scientific and legal work on
global legislative threats ·
• Professional public affairs lobbying and public
relations campaigns
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ANH IS AN ORGANISATION ENTIRELY FUNDED BY DONATIONS
HELP THE ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH TO HELP YOU
PLEASE MAKE A DONATION NOW by doing one of the following:
• Click here' target='_blank'>">http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/...
which will take you to the on-line donation section of the ANH website
• Call the ANH donation hotline 0870 701 5555 from
the UK or +44 870 701 555 from outside the UK (open 9.00am to 8.00pm GMT,
Monday to Friday)
• Send a cheque made payable to “Alliance for
Natural Health” to this address: ANH Campaign Fund, 16 The Mount, Guildford,
Surrey GU2 4HS. Sterling, US dollar and Euro cheques accepted.
• UK Partners are encourage to set up a regular monthly
donation by standing order. Click here
to download standing order mandate, complete and forward to your bank. The
ANH team thanks each and everyone of you for your support.
Below, we explain in more detail the current status of the key regulatory
threats that need to be addressed as well as the key initiatives that the ANH
is currently undertaking.
As you know, we are in the middle of probably the most crucial period in
medical freedom of choice that the world has yet seen.
Ever tighter regulation in a variety of areas affecting natural health
products, manufacturers, bioenergy devices, practitioners and almost all points
in the supply chain relating to provision of natural health products and
services, threaten our future ability to rely on natural methods of healthcare.
It is the totality of regulation that is the main problem – and
remember, what we see now by way of the EU Food Supplements Directive and
global Codex Guidelines on Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements, modelled
largely on the Food Supplements Directive – is just the beginning of a much
bigger plan to regulate natural health.
The regulations affecting food or dietary supplements hit us from three main
angles: they threaten ingredients that will be allowed to be used in
products, they threaten the dosages of those ingredients and they
threaten what can be said about the products (health claims). ANH is
working very hard to make positive gains on all these fronts.
The ANH doesn’t in principle have a problem with regulation. However, what we
do have a problem with is bad legislation. And amazingly, bad legislation
seems to be rather central to the plan. It is the result of compromise after
compromise and it is filled with flawed science. Even more remarkably, as we
had thought, it now appears that even the EU Food Supplements Directive may be invalid
under EU law. We will of course need to await the European Court of
Justice ruling which is now only a few weeks away.
Many people are suffering regulation overload. There is a battery of
EU Directives and Regulations affecting natural health coming through the
pipeline, there is also Codex, as a series of guidelines affecting, initially,
vitamin and mineral products and health claims, and, there are possible changes
to the US’s liberal DSHEA regime in the wings.
If there’s one thing we would ask you not to do, it is to become
apathetic and defeatist in your attitude. It might be a David and Goliath
battle that we find ourselves amidst, but, as Margaret Mead, the great
anthropologist said, “Never believe that a few caring people can't change the
world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.”
This is a critical time for action – and the more involved you become,
the more chance we all stand.
ANH is a funded entirely by voluntary donations. Most of the funds that have
allowed us to do what we have done for the last three years have come from you,
the consumer. It is the consumer that forces change more than any other
party. If we stop demanding cheap, synthetic vitamins, or dangerous drugs,
there will be no demand for them. We, the consumer, are responsible for
creating the demand.
Below we list some of the key activities with which we are involved
now, and we would welcome any support you feel you are able to give us
on any or all of these.
Key project activity
Some of the key projects we are presently working on are:
• Response to FAO/WHO Expert Panel meeting (meeting
in Geneva, Switzerland, 2-6 May 2005). These scientists have been considering
various risk assessment systems as well as discussion documents submitted by 16
organizations including the ANH (we advised that a thorough reworking of risk
assessment science was badly needed because the existing models were based on
poor science. Download our submission by clicking here.
We are expecting the report from the FAO/WHO Panel imminently, which we will be
responding to as a group of leading scientists and doctors worldwide.
• Preparation of a proposal to the European Commission
and Council of Ministers which we will submit on receipt of the ruling from
the European Court of Justice, in relation to our challenge of the EU Food
Supplements Directive. We are presently working on this submission and seeking
a wide swathe of support from the European food supplement industry.
• ANH is presently preparing its comments for
European Parliament discussion to be held on 25 May 2005 on the Nutrition
& Health Claims Regulation report.
• Dr Rob Verkerk will be presenting at the 12th
International Symposium on Functional Medicine (24-28 May 2005) in Palm
Springs, California. The ANH will also be exhibiting at the Symposium
(stand sponsored by Metagenics, US brochures sponsored by Allergy Research
Group) and will be seeking to develop a petition of scientists and doctors
present at the Symposium who will oppose the pharmaceutical and environmental
toxin-based risk assessments being proposed by health authorities in the US and
Europe, as well as by Codex. Refer to the ANH
article for background.
• ANH is working with the US-based National Health
Federation ( http://www.thenhf.com)
and others to inform a number of governments as to the deficiencies in the
Codex
Guidelines on Vitamins and Minerals. Unless the existing guidelines and
proposed risk assessment systems are altered, the ANH is advising governments
to not support ratification of the Codex Guidelines on Vitamins and Minerals
during the forthcoming meetings in Rome (4-9 July 2005). Since Codex guidelines
are voted for on a one-vote-per-country basis, and because consensus is
required (defined in this case as the “absence of sustained opposition”), we
believe that working with developing countries with long-standing traditional
medicinal cultures to help them appreciate the sense in voting “no” in Rome in
July, will be a more effective way of stalling the existing guidelines and
likely risk assessment systems. This is likely to be more valuable than trying
to shift country delegations from the richer, western countries that appear to
be fully committed to Codex in its current form. Just as the Advocate General
in the European Court of Justice has found flaws in the EU Food Supplements
Directive, the National Health Federation has now pointed out apparent procedural
problems with the Codex guidelines.
• ANH has been involved in the development of a US-based
coalition, the Coalition for Health Freedom, that is working to provide
a unified, coherent and pro-health freedom position which opposes the current
Codex Alimentarius guidelines. The Coalition was spawned following a meeting in
Washington DC, coordinated by the American Association
for Health Freedom. Watch this space!
• ANH and executive director Dr Rob Verkerk have been coordinating
with Kevin Miller ( www.welltv.com),
who is making a film on Codex. Kevin is well known as the film director who
made the documentary Let the Truth Be the Bias in the early 1990s, which helped
awaken the US public with regard to the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health &
Education Act) campaign on the lead up to its passage in 1994. Without the huge
response by the public, including the largest influx of letters received in the
history of the US Congress, DSHEA would not have been the liberal system that
it now is. But Codex, probably more than any other factor, seriously threatens
DSHEA – and Kevin’s new film is set to really wake people from their 11-year
slumber. A short version of the film is expected to be ready in less than
one month and will be distributed widely. Anyone who can help with
distribution, as well as with funding, should contact Kevin Miller directly at kevinmiller@welltv.com.
• We are working on the development of further strategic
legal challenges. More information on this will be released in due course.
This work is focused on benefiting the future of natural healthcare, not only
in western countries, but also in countries in Asia, Africa and South America
that have very long-standing traditions of herbal and natural medicine. Under
the ‘Codex risk assessment microscope’, many of these traditions would be
unlikely to fair well. In their place, the regulators seem content to offer a
diet of western pharmaceutical drugs known to be by far the most hazardous
group of substances commonly ingested by humans. We are firmly of the view that
a series of strategic legal challenges are required to ensure that the future
of natural healthcare is secured worldwide.
• On-going PR and media campaign, being coordinated
by IKON Associates in the UK. As of January 2005 we have commissioned a
UK-based PR consultancy to help ANH and its supporters get its message out.
This includes dealing with negative spin in the media that is so often based on
misrepresented or flawed scientific research. Communication about the threats
to natural medicine, as well as the importance of the campaign against these
threats, is now a very high priority.
Interview with Dr Rob Verkerk
For those of you requiring background on the EU situation, you might find it
useful to download an interview of Rob Verkerk carried out by Louise McLean of
Zeus Information Services, which was conducted during the recent Natural Trade
Show in Brighton, UK. The interview is now on the ANH website. Click here
to read it.
We encourage you to circulate this mailshot to your contact base.
Please encourage as many people as you know who value their freedom of
choice in health as well as their ability to continue to use natural products
to support good health.
Sign up as Partner
or Member via our website – and receive regular mailshots updating you
on the campaign.
Many thanks for your support.
In health, naturally.
The ANH team.
Tel. +44 (0)1252 371 275
Original source:
Details
- Natural Health Letter (press release)
Related Articles
• The inside scoop: Natural Health Products Expo West industry event
• NaturalNews emerges as top truly independent natural health news site
• NaturalNews readers making waves across the natural health, natural living markets (opinion)
• Preview of seven amazing new natural health products to be featured on NaturalNews
• Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book review
 |
Popular Topics:
natural health, CODEX, food supplements, Diabetes, Breast cancer, Prostate cancer, Heart disease, Depression, High cholesterol, Osteoporosis, Vaccines, Autism, ADHD, Infertility, Weight loss, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Trans fats, Acrylamides, Fluoride, Mercury |
Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com
 Email this article to a friend
 Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us
Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/008453.html
Reprinting this article: Non-commercial OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link.
|
 |
 |
Receive our Natural Health Newsletter for FREE
 Subscribe now (it's free!) to win. We randomly choose a subscriber each month to send $100 in eco-home products or a RealGoods.com gift certificate (our choice). Plus, you'll receive FREE news, articles and action alerts from NaturalNews.com editors and join over 800,000 monthly readers who report extraordinary health improvements after becoming a subscriber!
- Receive breaking news alerts on natural health solutions, renewable energy, the environment, global warming and more.
- Receive a free instant download of our $29 Secret Sources guide that reveals top sources for little-known health and diet solutions.
|
|
 |
 |
Recommended Special Report:
 Seven Words that can Change the World
by Joseph R. Simonetta
Read this special report now...
"Seven Words That Can Change the World reveals the astonishing, simple truths that have the power to forever transform our world for the better while freeing our minds from the enslavement of limiting beliefs. This is not a text for the simple-minded; it is a guiding philosophy for the mindful, intelligent few who are wise enough to seek out -- and recognize -- the higher simplicities of truly purposeful living." - Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews.com
|
More on NaturalNews.com:
• Streaming Health Ranger Videos
• CounterThink Cartoons
• FREE Special Reports
• Podcasts
|
 |
|
Printable Version
