newsletter no 42
Hello once again to our supporters
ANZTPA may have been parked due to a lack of support but the battle is far from over. The focus now though is somewhat different.
In this newsletter:
* Update on ANZTPA and our work
* Review of Codex and its impact
ANZTPA & the Therapeutic Products Bill
While the Therapeutic Products Bill is officially "on-hold", consumers and industry are left in an unacceptable state of limbo. The Government won't properly consider all other options while ANTPA remains their stated policy choice. What needs to happen is for this ill-fated idea to be abandoned and work to begin on a stand alone NZ based regulator for natural and traditional health products based on the report of the first health select committee looking at this matter.
We have been active over recent months putting together a joint industry position statement which now has the support of over 275 NZ businesses and organisations. We have called upon the Government to endorse this clear and unified call from stakeholders and have sought meetings with the new Minister of Health to discuss the issue. In line with Government's blinked approach to date, the Minister has so far been unwilling to meet with us. We have also been putting together working parties up and down New Zealand to discuss the way forward for the regulation of natural products and a lot of good work is being done in this regard. If you are interested in being part of this work please contact us.
If you haven't signed the Joint Industry Position Statement already please do so by clicking here -
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/position_statement.php
REMEMBER the more we can show unanimous support from industry, the more effective we can be.
Finally - we hear that the Government will shortly be announcing changes to the Dietary Supplement Regulations to split the industry between the control of NZ Food Safety Authority and Medsafe. This is of course the response to their failure to pass legislation to establish ANZTPA and we will be watching these changes closely when the detail is released. More info will follow in future newsletters.
Codex
Over the last few years many people have asked us about Codex and it is an issue we have also been very much aware of. To further our work in this area the Trust has become the sole NZ affiliate of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), a leading EU advocate for health freedoms and an active participant in Codex issues. In short Codex is a group established under the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation that develops internationally harmonised standards for food laws. Once it sets standards, those standards are then adopted by the individual countries and while there is no compulsion to do so, the position is that Codex guidelines are adopted by member states as domestic law unless there is a good reason not to.
Codex affects natural health products and supplements only if these products are regulated as foods in the country where they will be sold. In New Zealand at present they are officially classed as foods although all indications are that they won't remain under the Food Act in the long term. In Australia these products are regulated as drugs and so Codex doesn't apply to natural health products there however in Europe and most other countries natural health products are still regulated as foods and therefore Codex has a very real impact.
In Europe the Codex work has already resulted in a draft set of guidelines being issued setting maximum levels of vitamins and minerals that may be present in "foods" including for them vitamin and mineral supplements. These guidelines show in a very real way what the Codex work could mean to mankind's ability to access effective levels of safe natural products. They show that while Codex has focused on any evidence it can find that may show a possible risk for some people, they have failed to adequately take account of the very real risk to many more people if they have an inadequate intake of these essential building blocks of life. The limits set for example would limit the amount of beta carotene permitted to less than that naturally found in two carrots and the amount of selenium to less than that found in two brazil nuts.
For PDF full ANH Position Paper, click here or
http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHwebsiteDoc_290.pdf
For PDF of press release, click here or
http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHwebsiteDoc_291.pdf
Click here or http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/news.html to read on our website the press release from our European affiliates, the Alliance for Natural Health, which explains this further. News Item is dated 24th Oct 2007.
The problems with applying Codex rules to natural and traditional health products are one of the key reasons we remain of the view that these products should not be regulated as foods. However as we demonstrated during the ANZTPA debate, it is also not appropriate or fair to treat them as drugs. The only way forward, in our view, is the creation of laws made specifically for natural and traditional products distinct from both medicines and food and we are continuing working towards this end.
Kind Regards
Dave Sloan |
