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international |
anti-capitalism |
opinion/analysis 
Tuesday August 21, 2007 10:13
by Angela
Letters and Petition
Yet again the Government has shown itself limited by the market push of the EU and the FDA
with regard to choice in health care and diet. The FDA and EU had worked on an operating system,
which cost millons where the net result is the coloured bar on the end of your ceral box which tells
you the RDA of your food. Its the 'buy it bulk and sell it back at profit' school of thought which brought
the ban on St John's Wort and the envisaged ban on Tea Tree Oil. In translation it just means that
in exchange for the profit of the Multi's we get treated like kids with regard to Choice!
The letters are to be directed to:
Commissioner Markos Kyrianou
DG Sanco,
The European Commission
B-1049 Brussels.
Belgium.
and Mary Harney
The Department of Health and Children
Hawkins House
Dublin 2.
http://irishealthstores.com
The SOS campaign will run until late Autumn. (Save Our Supplements)
C+P blurb:-
"The EU is currently working to set maximum levels for mineral and vitamin supplements on sale in ireland and
throughout the EU.The Irish Government has proposed these should be no higher than RDA levels, i.e
the minimum amount you need to prevent deficency disease.In other words the RDA level being of 60mg
a day is enough to prevent scurvy but this measure is virtually useless for supporting your immune
system. RDA levels are very much lower than amounts needed to support optimal health"
Interestingly the multis now market Coco Pops to kids as RDA complaint and they pay Irish Voice
Actors to advertise Cereal bars in the Cinemas, which are absolutely full of sugar and the
wrappings are not eco-friendly. the codex and food supplements issues feed directly into the
politics of how the FDA /EU/Multis are attempting to re-educate the consumer on issues of diet
through mass-marketing and branded advertising.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4backround:-
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/79330
update:-
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1107...omnet
The reasons I was given my they dont sell stuff over the RDA, is that too much vitimin C can cause diarreha. Something like a few thousand milligrams. I think this is silly. I take a thousan milligrams a day. Thats 1667% RDA.
The reasons for the Irish Government's proposals on RDA are as yet totally unclear, but
given the work of the EU on varied directives regarding the sale of products in the area
of homeopathy and food supplements- you don't have to look very far.
The UK authorities have been cracking down on homeopathy with funding withdrawn from
the London Homeopathic hospital and training institute, and patents bought by multinationals,
on alternative remedies= market interests/corporate interference in personal health choice issues.
In Ireland, the St John's Wort row was tied to the political directioning of the IMB who
are the statutory body with responsibility in the area of medicines/drugs and pharmaceutical
products, its a huge growth area and inevitably profitable for multi-national sponsors
who send medical reps to consultants/hospitals and GPs. Patient choice in quality of care and
the ability of alternative practioners to advertise are severely lessened. One example in
point is the whole approach of the current Department of Health to funding maternity
options, where choice in midwife care as opposed to consultant care has resulted in
more epidurals and medically managed labours- and where consultant establishment
still looks on birth as a medical set of symptoms and not a process.
The link in the first comment details the huge corporate political manouevrings
of the FDA and Codex over how we label our food, the little bar code at the base of,
for example'coco pops' is the result of food politics, market forces and supply of
ingredient to the multinationals. They buy everything and sell it back to consumers at
tremendous profit, massive expense and environmental damage (air miles). The bag
of prepared salad that is so popular in Ireland has caused untold environmental damage
due to low exchanges for growers, aggressive farming methods, use of detergents
and pollutants in the water systems where the intensive farming is carried out.
Reducing vitamin supplements to RDA level and sponsoring through corporate
advertising globalised products which claim to ensure recommended RDA's is
simply a way of reducing consumer choices and of course corporate profits, it
also treats consumers as children who are uneducated about the issue of diet.
The Greens had supported the Health stores on many of these issues but they
are now in government and consequent government policy would point to their
support of amongst others the IMB.
It is not the EU that banned the sale of St John's Wort in Ireland. It was the Irish Medicines Board. It is still on sale over the counter outside of Ireland in the rest of the EU.
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