Update: While the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Senator McCain has withdrawn his support from S. 3002, it is still important to keep the pressure on the Senate to make sure they do not pass this bill.
Dear AAPS Action Team,
Call your Senators (Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 or click here to find their direct numbers) and tell them to oppose Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan’s (D-ND) bill S. 3002 “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010” which would repeal key section of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). DSHEA has protected consumers access to dietary supplements and limited the FDA’s power until now. If S. 3002 passes it would;
- require all supplements to be approved by the Federal government through a new and unspecified process. Only those ingredients that are on the approved dietary ingredient list can be sold.
- any business or operation engaged in manufacturing, packaging, labeling, holding, or distributing dietary supplements would have to register with the Federal government.
- new dietary supplements would have to go through a difficult and expensive process to be approved for use. Instead of considered safe and proven unsafe by the FDA, they will be considered unsafe by the FDA and need to be proven safe by the manufacturers.
The FDA already has the legal authority it needs to remove dietary supplements from the market that it deems dangerous and its against the law already for dietary supplement manufactures to sell drug tainted supplements. Therefore the arguments used to support the bill are not supportable by the facts.
Tell your Senators to support consumers access to dietary supplements by not cosponsoring the bill S. 3002 “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010” and also tell them to call Senators McCain and Dorgan and have them pull the bill.
Thank you,
Michael D. Ostrolenk, MA, MFT
Public Policy Counsel
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
