The Crush of the Natural Health Industry

Adding to the increase of American obesity, four bills plus two companion bills are being introduced to crush multiple faucets of nutritional supplements. Feeding the destruction of each American's health freedom is New York State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, (D-51^st District).

These four bills aim at consumers by targeting all supplement companies that sell in New York, which can create a large dent in the country since most natural supplement companies are based in New York. Each bill targets natural supplement suppliers that are located in New York, however if passed through the legislation system, more states would take these bills on. The last time that the government took on the natural supplement industry was in 1994 with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA Act) that successfully resulted in being enacted with 2.5 million letters from American citizens, the government lost. The DSHEA Act basically just states that the FDA should not get involved unless it is proven to be dangerous or adulterated. Therefore these four bills and two companion bills will demolish the DSHEA Act that was the result of the largest letter-writing campaign in American history!

These four bills are a way for the FDA to get power over this million dollar industry with little benefit to the consumers. If enacted, overall natural supplement prices would be increased since the companies would be required to go through numerous testing states before going on the market. In addition, since there is a direct attack against the New York supplement industry, those companies may feel pressured to move to other states.

The Four Bills State:
Bill A4014: School Employees will not be allowed to sell or recommend dietary supplements to students. Therefore, schools will not be allowed to teach about nutritional importance in daily life. This would include coaches, health and physical education teachers and nurses.

Bill A3944: The FDA will be required to approve or deny supplement manufacturers' health claims. Any warning statements will be required to be posted on the products labels.