I am sitting in an airport right now – traveling makes it very challenging to keep up with my multi-media output. Just getting the SGU out this week will be a challenge (but fear not – it will get out on time). So – I only have time for a short post this morning.

Recently Congressman Henry Waxman introduced a bill that would hold vitamin sellers accountable for the health claims that they make. This would be a sensible change to the current regulations in the US, which essentially amount to a free-for-all with a thin veneer of accountability. Right now there is almost no pre-marketing requirements for the supplement industry.

Thanks to DSHEA, companies (which increasingly include pharmaceutical companies – so forget your homey image of a  mom-and-pop vitamin store) are free to sell vitamins and “supplements” (which can include herbs used as drugs) without any requirement to provide evidence of safety and efficacy. They are even allowed to make pseudo health claims – so-called “structure and function” claims.

Recently John McCain and others tried to introduce the supplement safety act which would update DSHEA and add some sorely needed protections for consumers but he was squashed by Tom Harkin and the supplement industry – so that effort appears to be dead for now.

Now Henry Waxman, who is a consistent voice of science and reason in the Congress, wants to require vitamin companies to defend their health claims with actual evidence. This does not mean they will be held to the same standard as pharmaceuticals, but simply that they just cannot claim whatever they want without providing evidence. Right now the only line of protection is the FTC, but they can only scratch the surface of fraudulent and misleading claims in this industry. Waxman would give them more power to actually do their job – since the effort to empower the FDA with McCain’s bill failed.

I fully support this bill. We need a more rational balance in this country between the free market and consumer protection in the supplement industry. So far, true believers like Harkin and industry protectors like Hatch have had complete victory, and the consumer is left with nothing but caveat emptor.

The reaction of vitamins hawkers is predictable and laughable. Just read Mike Adams’ shrill diatribe. Not only is his tone hysterical, he gets his facts almost entirely wrong. But he has a narrative that he is selling – as much as Fox News has a narrative, and the Huffington Post has a narrative – a certain perspective through which news is filtered. Adams is selling his conspiracy theory that any attempt to regulate him and what he is selling is a gestapo fascist tactic that is trying to take away your freedoms. Charlatans are always carrying on about your freedoms – but what they are really interested in is their own freedom to sell dubious products with dubious claims without the burden of regulation meant to keep them honest or protect the consumer.

Perhaps I will go over it in more detail when I have time – meanwhile read it for yourself and see if you can spot all the propaganda and logical fallacies.