Members of the European Parliament are being inundated with unsolicited emails as part of a campaign to draw attention to a move by the European Union to outlaw high-dose vitamins and minerals. Matthias Rath, a German-born physician and expert on cardiovascular diseases, is leading the protest.
The EU's plans to outlaw high-dose vitamins and minerals stem from the findings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), which was set up in 1961 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Dr Rath, though, believes that the CAC is geared towards protecting the global pharmaceutical market, and this harms consumers.
Dr Rath insists that there is a connection between vitamin deficiency and heart disease, and says that restricting the distribution of vitamins could put at risk the lives of millions of people.
"The EU directive threatens to affect all our lives and it is vitally important that we do everything in our power to oppose it," said Dr Rath. "The freedom to make decisions about our health is in jeopardy and this is what we are fighting against. Vitamins are a basic nutritional right and we must defend this right to ensure the health of ours and future generations."
The Commission's proposal for a directive on vitamins and minerals in food supplements was submitted to the European Parliament on 10 May 2000. The parliamentary report on the directive proposed 38 amendments, which the Commission has incorporated into its proposal. The Commission now hopes that the directive will be adopted by the European Parliament, but Dr Rath is determined to prevent it from becoming EU law.
MEPs have been receiving between 50 and 100 protest emails a day since mid-October. Dr Rath has set up a website encouraging Internet users to forward his email message to MEPs, as well as members of the CAC and other parties involved in the proposed EU directive. Recipients of the email complain that it is inconvenient and time-consuming to delete all the messages. Each email message is sent by a different user from a different email account, and each message contains a slightly different subject heading. Therefore the messages cannot easily be blocked. Over 30 million protest letters have been sent since the campaign began at the start of September.
Parliamentarians and assistants are frustrated by the unsolicited emails - referred, in computer jargon, as "spam" - but, at the moment, they are powerless to do anything about them. Last week, MEPs voted against the European Commission's call for a standardised EU policy on "spamming", whereby companies would have to seek specific consent before they could send out commercial emails. However, the proposed Commission legislation on "spamming" only applies to trade emails (in other words, emails that were geared towards trying to sell a specific product). Therefore, if it did come into force, email campaigns such as the one that Dr Rath is engaged in would still be allowed.
Despite the irritation caused by the junk emails, Dr Rath is convinced of the effectiveness of the campaign. "If the campaign wasn't effective, we wouldn't be continuing with it," said a member of Dr Rath's team to the EUobserver.com. "We have been successful in postponing the EU directive so far, and we hope to continue to do this."
Written by Blake Evans-Pritchard
Edited by Daniela Spinant
Source: euobserver.com
For more information on what Codex is, and what the Commission seeks
to accomplish without your consent, please see http://www.vitamins-for-all.org/codex/usa/index.html
MATTHIAS RATH, M.D.
BIOGRAPHY
Matthias Rath, M.D. is the world-renowned physician and scientist who led the breakthrough towards the natural control of cardiovascular disease. He is the founder of Cellular Health, the new understanding that health and diseases are determined at the level of cells and that the optimum supply of bioenergy nutrients, such as vitamins and other essential nutrients to millions of cells is the basis of optimal health.
Dr. Rath's scientific publications have appeared in most reputable scientific journals, including the American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and others. He authored many popular bestselling books such as Why Animals Don't Get Heart Attacks ... But People Do, an ongoing Cellular Health Series, and many other publications.
Dr. Rath is founder and head of an international research and development firm in natural health. Major portions of the revenues generated from the sales are reinvested into further research and clinical studies in natural health.
Dr. Rath's discoveries set off the events leading to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, as well as the efforts by pharmaceutical companies to suppress vitamin therapies world wide through the United Nation's "Codex Alimentarius". The details of Dr. Rath's decade long advocacy for natural health versus the "Business with Disease" are documented in his books.
For more information on Dr Rath's incredible campaign,
please visit www.vitamins-for-all.org
