To: IAHF List
Subject: Codex Vitamin Issue Update - How to Get Codex Vitamin Issue Documents- Join Me on US Codex Delegation: Heres How - Also Please Donate to IAHF
From: John Hammell jham@iahf.com
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 19:06:15 -0400

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If you want to be on the US Codex Delegation to the meeting on the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use, you must email your notice of intent to participate by May 19, 2000 to Dr.H. Michael Wehr; FDA/CFSAN, Office of Constituent Operations, Room 5818 200 C St., SW, Washington DC 20204 (202-260-2786, fax 202-205-0165, Mwehr@cfsan.fda.gov The meeting is in Berlin Germany June 19-23.

I've sent my notice of intent to participate, and thank those of you who have sent donations to help me get there as the government does not pay the travel expenses of anyone on the delegation except for the government rep.

I will be attending planning meetings in Washington regarding this Codex meeting in Germany on May 1 and May 17th.

If you want copies of the German proposal for Draft Guidelines on Vitamin and Minerals Supplements or the summary of the discussions from the 1998 CCFSNDU meeting, email Dr.Ellen Anderson at FDA/CFSAN at Ellen.Anderson@cfsan.fda.gov

A discussion paper to spur discussion of the Codex Vitamin Issue was generated by 5 delegations: Brazil, Canada, the European Commission, Mexico, and the USA. It is titled "Issues Surrounding Elaboration of a Codex Guideline for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements" You can download it from either http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/foiahand.html or from http://www.fda.gov/foi.foi2.htm

The outrageous thing about this paper is that it cites the unscientific NAS paper which FDA illegally put on the table at Codex in '98 titled "A Risk Assessment Model for Establishing Upper Limits for Nutrients" as if this paper were truthful. We are being set up, and more people must become aware of this scam. The FDA illegally put this paper on the table at Codex over the written objection of 5 members of Congress. (See "letters from Congress" http://www.iahf.com/ Please alert more people to join the IAHF email distribution list (email jham@iahf.com) and to visit the IAHF website at http://www.iahf.com/

If you haven't already, please send a donation to me at IAHF PO Box 625 Floyd VA, 24091 USA so that I can get over to the Codex meeting in Berlin in order to monitor the meeting at the end of June. Thanks to those of you who have donated! I am still trying to get an oversight hearing, even if it is only a field hearing, and isn't held before Burton's Oversight Committee. At this point any hearing would be better than none at all.

Rick Malter's rebuttal to the NAS paper has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and will be posted soon in the IAHF website underneath the NAS paper. We are trying to line up several good expert witnesses (in addition to Dr.Malter) who can testify before Congress to the gross lack of science in the NAS paper titled "A Risk Assessment Model for Establishing Upper Levels for Nutrients" As discussed previously, this paper is being used to set us up for Codex harmonization due to how it will be used by the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body which will regard it to be the "Gold Standard" on vitamin safety unless we can force the FDA to remove it from the table, and replace it with a paper which instead reflects the will of the American people as clearly expressed through the Proxmire Vitamin Act of 1976, via the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, and most recently via the amendment to the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 which makes it illegal for the FDA to take any action that threatens to undermine our dietary supplement laws via harmonization.