Positive Health Online

No Deaths From Vitamins or Minerals

Poison Control Statistics Prove Supplements' Safety

There was not even one death caused by a vitamin or dietary mineral in 2007, according to the most recent statistics available from the US National Poison Data System. The 132-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers published in the journal Clinical Toxicology shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin. [1]

Furthermore, there were zero deaths in 2007 from any dietary mineral supplement. This means there were no fatalities from calcium, chromium, zinc, colloidal silver, selenium, iron, or multimineral supplements. There was one death from chronic overdose of magnesium hydroxide, commonly known as the laxative/antacid milk of magnesia, and it was inappropriately listed in the 'dietary supplement' reporting category. Nutritional supplements do not contain magnesium hydroxide.

Over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. Even if each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 154,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 56 billion doses annually. Since many persons take more than just one vitamin or mineral tablet, the numbers are considerably higher, and the safety of nutritional supplements is all the more remarkable.

61 poison centres provide coast-to-coast data for the US National Poison Data System, which is then reviewed by 29 medical and clinical toxicologists. In 2007, NPDS reported 1,597 fatalities from drugs and other ingested materials. Not one death was due to a vitamin or dietary mineral supplement.

If nutritional supplements are allegedly so 'dangerous', as the FDA and the news media so often claim, then where are the bodies?

References
1.  Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Green JL, Rumack BH, Heard SE; American Association of Poison Control Centers. 2007 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 25th Annual Report. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 46(10):927-1057. Dec 2008. Full text article available for free download at http://bit.ly/2HbvGQ Vitamins statistics are found in Table 22B, journal pages 1027-1028. Minerals are in the same table, page 1024.
 
For Further Reading:
Download any Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1983-2007 free of charge at: http://bit.ly/2RLkH7 The 'Vitamin' category is usually near the very end of the report.

Further Information
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine. Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: www.orthomolecular.org
To Subscribe at no charge: www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html  
OMNS archive link www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

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Open Letter to Canadian Senators re Canadian Dietary Supplement Restrictions

We are greatly concerned to see the introduction of Bill C-6. This bill would appear at first read to be C-51/52 reinvented, but C-6 is an even more ominous instrument.

Over 1,000,000 voters and citizens have made our wishes clearly known several times on the 'our healthy foods are not drugs' issue since the 1997 Federal Elections. Our Freedom of Choice in Health Care grassroots organization filed an historic lawsuit on June 26th, 1997 that stopped the July 1st 1997 planned implementation of changing over 60,000 of our ultra-safe and essential-for-good-health Dietary Food Supplements and other Traditional Holistic Health Care products into new highly-regulated and controlled drugs. Those wonderful champions for Freedom of Choice in Health Care Dr James Lunney and Dr Colin Carrie, worked with over a million of us to again stop our Traditional Holistic Health Care products from being federally regulated as new drugs by championing their Private Members Bill C-420.

The big pharma sneak attack via the Natural Health Products Drug Regulations was and still is being forced onto all of us totally against grassroots free-will.

Bypassing Parliament scrutiny and accountability cannot be allowed to happen.

In addition, increasingly needless extreme federal regulations are destroying hundreds of Small family enterprises that are already suffering economic hardship. These out-of-federal-criminal- power-jurisdiction and unnecessary and destructive regulations started on January 1st 2004 and are the real source of the Freedom of Choice in Health Care problems that we are all now facing.

In addition, hundreds of millions of tax dollars are newly being spent because of driving the safer, more effective and far less costly self-health care source of supply off of the Canadian market.

Do you realize that of the estimated 60,000 dietary food supplement products that were available in 1997, Big Pharma, via Health Canada and other federal regulators have now reduced the products so-called lawful for sale in Canada to less than 20,000!!!

There is an increasing perception that none of our Members of the Canadian Parliament can and / or will be able to stop this Global Elite Driven Agenda which manifested itself in April 2008 with the introduction of Bills C-51 and C-52.

In 2008, again for the third time in 11 years, over a million voters and concerned citizens of Canadians expressed serious concerns about Bill C-51/52 and were relieved to say goodbye to them with the calling of an election. But here we are in 2009 seeing Bill C-6 raising the same concerns. Canadians have repeatedly made it very clear that we do not want our Dietary Food Supplements to fall into the same category as expensive, toxic, highly regulated drugs that are in fact the number 1 killer of Canadians and Americans [see www.deathbymodernmedicine.com].

Bill C-6 gives absolute discretionary power to the Canadian Federal Health Minister to take whatever measures she feels necessary to stop the sale of an allegedly unsafe product.

Health Canada regulators have managed for over 14 years of well documented complaints to every Member of Parliament, the Senate and recorded testimony before numerous Parliament Committees and the various Parties' 1998 Standing Committee on Health Reports to evade being held accountable for their ongoing atrocious bias and prejudice to non synthetic drug Health Care approaches.

No one wants dangerous and harmful products available for sale that are truly unsafe. But there are already procedures in place to protect us without taking such a huge bite out of our personal freedoms.

The Minister may designate any individual as an Inspector. These individuals do not have to have any technical or medical or health knowledge of the products that they are given the power to confiscate. Their only qualification will be a Certificate as to their designation of inspector as attested to by the Minister.

Bill C-6 gives powers to these inspectors to stop the importation or sale of a product and to seize property and documents, based entirely on the inspector's belief that a product may be harmful. There is no requirement for the inspector to produce any documented proof or scientific evidence of harm, merely a belief of that harm - not that they would understand it, anyway. Warrants seem to be required regarding seizures from personal dwellings but not commercial. This leaves small businesses open for random, unreasonable search and seizures at the whim of the inspectors and Minister.

Since January 1 2009, there have been 4 raids with guns and seizures that we are aware of, conducted by Health Canada and the RCMP attacking sincere and dedicated small family enterprises that successfully prevent, treat and even cure in some cases most chronic health challenges.

For self-education and help, be sure to go to www.livelongereducationalfoundation.com and use the key word search for self-educational information about any health challenge that you and / or a loved one might have.

With Bill C-6 there would be no court hearing with the accused present; there is no requirement for notice that they are under investigation. They will be required to pay for the removal and storage of their property, once a seizure has been initiated, and even if a person does their due diligence to prevent the violation, this cannot be used in their defence.

Fines could be exorbitant; up to $5,000,000 and/or imprisonment for 2 years. All that a person would have to do to commit a violation would be to contravene a bureaucratic order. It does not matter if the violation was unintentional, if no one was harmed, if there was no intention to harm, if there was no victim and no crime!

Bill C-6 allows the Health Minister to dispose of the materials seized by whatever means the Minister chooses. The implications point to the annihilation of business and business owner.

There is no evidence on record that Natural Health Products (NHP), more correctly called Dietary Food Supplements the same as the US Legislative definition, properly administered and used as directed has ever caused serious side effects or anything as serious as death. They should not be regulated in the same way that even over-the-counter drugs are regulated. These substances, even properly prescribed and used as directed have, on record, since introduction on the market caused serious, life-altering side effects and even death.

Another very major issue, given the total lack of trust that millions of Canadian have since the 1997 Our Healthy Foods Are not Drugs protests and legal action and the extensive 1998 Standing Committee on Health Hearings is that federal politicians and bureaucrats working solely in the interests of Big Pharma will deny that Bill C-6 is directed at NHPs.

This argument has several flaws, including the simple legal definition problem that legislatively in Canada and the USA and elsewhere in the world there is no such defined term as Natural Health Product.

In 1994 the USA under the same type of overwhelming grassroots protests created the Dietary Health Supplements Education Act [DSHEA], which has largely successfully solved the century old issue of the federal regulatory line between Foods, Dietary Food Supplements and Chemical Drugs in medicinal applications.

Another flaw is that Section 4. (1) states "This Act applies to consumer products with the exception of those listed in Schedule 1."

Schedule 1 of the Bill includes in its list "Drugs within the meaning of Section 2 of the Food and Drugs Act."  Natural Health Products are 'drugs' under the Food and Drugs Act, and consequently are currently exempted from the application of Bill C-6.

Section 36(1) (c) of the Bill allows the Government to amend Schedule 1 to make Bill C-6 apply to drugs (which includes NHPs), by-passing a regulation.

In addition, Bills C-6, C-51 and C-52 all presuppose that their federal jurisdiction and that the January 1st 2004 Natural Health Products drug class change is legal and will stay in place.

There is one final dark aspect to this proposed bill and it is the proposed harmonization clause under Section 36 (4). A regulation made under this Act may incorporate by reference documents that the Minister produces jointly with another government for the purpose of harmonizing the regulation with other laws.

The proposed legislated allegiance to a government of a foreign state or an international organization of states is completely unacceptable to an average Canadian. It threatens our sovereignty as a nation; giving authority to foreign powers to enforce laws that we Canadians have no knowledge or say in.

We believe that the well-funded and profit-driven drug corporations have managed to all but remove from us our freedom of choice in how we protect our health. We believe that the evidence has long been in. We believe that you, our servants, those who hold office in our government, are allowing your good conscience to be swayed by these corporations. We believe that you are about to vote for legislation that you know not only keeps historically proven safe products out of the hands of their employers; that is, we the people, but puts in serious jeopardy the health and well-being of our entire land for a very long time to come.

We call on you, and hold you responsible, to not give our sovereignty away under the guise of harmonization.

Please, let us do due diligence to lovingly care for a beautiful country and society. We urge you as our representatives and servants to vote this dangerous piece of legislation out of existence. Do not continue to put profits before peoples good health and be the only motivation in our nations health care. You can and must make a difference for the future of not only our families, but yours as well.

You must break rank with your Party Whip System and start focussing on truly representing the majority wishes of your constituents. To continue to do otherwise destroys the very Civilized Foundations of our Democratic Rule of Law Society.

If you cannot freely vote as the majority of your constituents want, why would we want to pay for you to be in Parliaments to begin with?

Health care is the number one priority for millions of Canadians, and the solution is in a level and equal playing field for Traditional Holistic Health Care approaches.

Please read between the lines on this bill and stop Bill C-6 now and the soon expected Bill C-51 reworked and renamed Bill and help us cancel the Natural Health Product Regulations and return our Dietary Food Supplements to their lawful current legislative status as Healthy Foods under the current Foods and Drug Act.

No regulation should be allowed to exceed its legislative authority and to change by regulation what has not been done in the open in Parliament by legislation.

Source: Chris Gupta chrisgupta@alumni.uwaterloo.ca
 
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