Herbal Medicines and Food Supplements
No Logic in EU Position

UK North Thanet's Member of Parliament Roger Gale, has said that there is 'no logic' in the European Union position of Food Supplements and Herbal Medicines.

Intervening during an Opposition debate on the subject in the Commons chamber tonight (Monday) the MP asked: "Why is it in order for the EU to subsidise and promote the production and use of a leaf - tobacco - which it is known causes harm but not in order for herbal medicines and food supplements that have been taken by humans for years with no harmful effects to remain on the shelves of our healthfood stores. There is no logic in this position whatsoever."

Speaking after the debate the MP said at Westminster: "Under the guise of 'consumer protection' we head the Health Minister present a litany of Euro bureaucracy to no useful purpose. Many products or their sources will disappear simply because their producers will not be prepared to go to the expense of justifying them.

Why should it be necessary to 'prove' the efficacy of a product so long as it does not cause harm? These are not NHS medicines, they are over the counter products bought willingly by people who want to use them and if they only believe that those products are doing them good then they probably are.

The EU is proposing to limit the quantities of vitamin additives available. The ludicrous part of that is that there is no practical or scientific difference between one 100 milligram capsule of B6 and four 25 milligram capsules of B6 - so if people want 100 milligrams they will simply take 4 tablets instead of one!

Worse, the suggestion is that some products will be 'phased out' between 2005 and 2009. If they are bad for you in 2009 then surely they must be bad for you now - in which case why are they on the market at all? And if they are not bad for you now, or in 2005, then they are not bad for you in 2009 - so why is the EU trying to mend an industry and consumer choice that isn't broken?

The very many constituents that have signed petitions in the healthfood stores in my constituency and throughout Kent are going to find it hard to believe that this government has done other than give in to French and German pressure to 'harmonise' our own regulation with their own much stricter controls. The nanny state is bad enough - this is the nanny union write large."
Herne Bay Gazette, 23 January 2003