Protect your right to Nutritional Supplements

I read an article in Men's Health last year about all of the legislation out there to remove many nutritional supplements from the market. As we've seen over the past 2 years with the ban of Ephedra, Methyl Test, Andro and others things are getting out of control. Please see the article below from an organization that is trying to protect our access to supplements.






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March 23, 2005

108th Congress Ends, 109th Congress Begins

Codex Clarified

Sending Out an SOS

Vitamin E Revisited

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Dear Grassroots Advocates,

After enduring the busiest legislative year since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994, NNFA is prepared for another eventful year in Congress and in state legislatures all across the country. Although it has been predicted that the absence of controversial products like andro and ephedra would ease pressure on DSHEA, it is likely that attempts to undermine this landmark legislation will not abate as the 109th Congress escalates its activity. Rest assured, we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that your access to dietary supplements is not restricted. If we’re to continue to be successful, we will need your persistence throughout the year to get our message across to Congress.


David R. Seckman
Executive Director and CEO


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End of the 108th Congress, Start of the 109th
Fortunately, legislation that would have undermined DSHEA did not advance as Congress ended its legislative session last year. Your persistent efforts to let your legislators know how you felt about maintaining access to safe, affordable and effective dietary supplements registered. We remain concerned, however, that our most vocal opponents in Congress will reintroduce legislation that again attacks DSHEA.

We continue to monitor all legislative activity in both chambers of Congress, and we’ll be sure to notify you when grassroots action is needed. In the meantime, you can keep track of the status of all bills in Congress and be automatically notified when your representatives vote on key issues. Just click here to sign-up for these announcements through NNFA’s Advocacy Action Center.

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A Clarification on Codex
There has been a lot of misinformation about activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in relation to dietary supplements in recent months. The primary concern expressed about Codex is whether adoption of final guidelines pertaining to upper limits on vitamins and minerals threatens access to these products in the United States. NNFA believes the answer is No and encourages those interested in the topic to get the facts at http://www.nnfa.org/services/governm...r_Codex_QA.htm.

You will see Congress took care to protect U.S. laws by including provisions in its trade agreements to ensure that international guidelines adopted in connection with these agreements would not have any legal effect on U.S. federal statutes. As noted by the Food and Drug Administration recently, “Nothing in the trade agreements or process will restrict either the sale of dietary supplements in the United States or the type of information that manufacturers may provide to consumers about their products.” You can read more about what the FDA has to say about why Codex will not impact U.S. sales of dietary supplements at the following link: www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dscodex.html.

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Join the Save Our Supplements Campaign
The Coalition to Preserve DSHEA, an advocacy organization dedicated to keeping the landmark 1994 law intact, has launched a consumer information site at http://www.saveoursupplements.org/. We urge you to visit the site if you haven’t already and sign-up to receive alerts and information. The SOS site is similar to NNFA’s in that you can contact elected officials and members of the media about issues vital to the dietary supplement industry.

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Vitamin E
Recent news stories in print and on the air have again heralded the results of another flawed study on vitamin E. This latest article, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, claims that those taking vitamin E may have a higher risk of heart failure. NNFA proactively contacted national media with the positive message about vitamin E that became part of many print and broadcast stories. To get the facts about vitamin E, visit NNFA’s Vitamin E Resource Center at www.nnfa.org/vitamine.htm. If your local media covered the vitamin E story but didn’t present all the facts, you can write to them using NNFA’s Advocacy Action Center at http://capwiz.com/nnfa/issues/alert/...643071&type=ME.

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Know someone who'd be interested in receiving the Advocacy Update? Please forward them this e-mail or encourage them to sign up by visiting NNFA's Web site at http://capwiz.com/nnfa/mlm/.

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About NNFA
NNFA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization representing retailers and suppliers of natural and nutritional products. Visit www.nnfa.org/aboutnnfa/index.htm for more information.

Make a donation today to NNFA's advocacy efforts and help to ensure that the products that keep America healthy keep their high standards and are not subject to restrictive legislation. To donate, visit www.nnfa.org/contribute.htm.

Visit NNFA's Advocacy Action Center to learn more about legislative activities that affect those who buy, sell and consume natural and nutritional products, like organic foods and dietary supplements.

If you would like to remove your name from NNFA's advocacy e-mail list, simply click here to unsubscribe.





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National Nutritional Foods Association
Headquarters Office Address: 3931 MacArthur Blvd., Ste. 101, Newport Beach, CA 92660-3013
[email protected]

Washington Address: 1220 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036