Mike Weatherley campaigns to save vitamins
& food supplements
Mike Weatherley, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, today signed the online petition to save the vitamins and mineral tablets used by millions of British people and urged residents in Brighton and Hove to do the same. These supplements are used frequently used in the cold season, and the mineral Boron, important for strong bones and teeth, are set to become illegal once recently passed European laws are fully introduced. Many more specialist vitamins that have been used safely by UK consumers for many years will also disappear. Almost every multi-vitamin tablet sold in Britain will have to be reformulated to avoid breaking the law.
Under the new European Food Supplements Directive, vitamins like 1gm Vitamin C – currently on sale in health stores across the city will be banned. This is not for safety reasons but in the name of ‘European harmonisation’. Conservatives have launched an online petition, working in partnership with the pressure group Consumers for Health Choice who are distributing postcards and posters to local health food stores.
Mike said:
“Labour have let down millions of vitamins and food
supplements users by rubber-stamping the badly drafted European Food Supplements
Directive. It is too late to
reverse that decision, but it is not too late to change the way that the laws
will be enforced and the small print. It is still possible to save many vitamin
and health supplements that people across Brighton and Hove have been using safely for years.
The European Commission has still to decide many final details. It
is still possible to save many products; but that will not happen unless the
Government works hard on our behalf. Right now, that’s not happening.”
“There are two main reasons why this directive threatens the future availability of many safe and popular vitamin and mineral supplements in the United Kingdom.
1. The Directive contains a list of nutrients and nutrient sources which can be used in food supplements. If a nutrient is not on the “positive list” it cannot be used. Over 250 nutrients and nutrient sources that are already on the UK market which are not included in the Directive. Although manufacturers have until July 2005 in which to submit dossiers of detailed scientific data to support applications for inclusion on the “positive list”, producing these will be very expensive and we have established that many manufacturers simply will be unable to afford the costs involved. This will deny consumers access to safe nutrients of their choice, some of which have been on the UK market for decades.
2. The Directive provides that maximum levels of nutrients will be set for supplements and that it will be illegal to market supplements that contain higher levels than these. We believe that such maximum permitted levels should be set on the basis of safety - if a product is safe, consumers should be able to choose to buy it. The Directive provides that the maximum permitted level may be set at or close to this upper safe level, but does not require that this should be the case. Under pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby and from the French and German Governments this provision of the Directive could be interpreted in a restrictive manner so that only low-level supplements would be allowed. This would see many safe, popular and effective higher potency supplements removed from the UK market.”
“ This is bureaucracy at its worst. Thousands of people will find that they are no longer able to buy the herbal remedies of their choice. And all because a few large pharmaceutical companies are keen to squeeze out their smaller competitors, and have managed to get Brussels to do their bidding. I call upon local residents to sign our e-petition at www.conservatives.com/vitamins. With the public’s help, we can force Ministers to preserve access to these products on behalf of Brighton and Hove’s consumers. This might be our last chance to change this unnecessary and damaging EU legislation.”
Note.
Conservatives,
supported by the actress Jenny Seagrove and ‘Consumers for Health Choice’
have launched a new campaign to put pressure on the Government to step in and
get the right deal in Brussels. A nationwide e-petition has been launched at www.conservatives.com/vitamins
to put renewed pressure on Ministers and to make them realise how
strongly people feel.
The
pressure group Consumers for Health Choice is also distributing one million
postcards and posters to health food stores around the country telling their
customers about this new Conservative campaign and asking them to support it.
The text of
the Directive is available at:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_183/l_18320020712en00510057.pdf