Campaign Help Needed

by Sceptic Mon Sep 10, 2007 20:37

It is not the EU that banned the sale of St John's Wort in Ireland. It was the Irish Medicines Board. It is still on sale over the counter outside of Ireland in the rest of the EU.

by C Murray Mon Sep 10, 2007 09:10

The reasons for the Irish Government's proposals on RDA are as yet totally unclear, but
given the work of the EU on varied directives regarding the sale of products in the area
of homeopathy and food supplements- you don't have to look very far.
The UK authorities have been cracking down on homeopathy with funding withdrawn from
the London Homeopathic hospital and training institute, and patents bought by multinationals,
on alternative remedies= market interests/corporate interference in personal health choice issues.
In Ireland, the St John's Wort row was tied to the political directioning of the IMB who
are the statutory body with responsibility in the area of medicines/drugs and pharmaceutical
products, its a huge growth area and inevitably profitable for multi-national sponsors
who send medical reps to consultants/hospitals and GPs. Patient choice in quality of care and
the ability of alternative practioners to advertise are severely lessened. One example in
point is the whole approach of the current Department of Health to funding maternity
options, where choice in midwife care as opposed to consultant care has resulted in
more epidurals and medically managed labours- and where consultant establishment
still looks on birth as a medical set of symptoms and not a process.

The link in the first comment details the huge corporate political manouevrings
of the FDA and Codex over how we label our food, the little bar code at the base of,
for example'coco pops' is the result of food politics, market forces and supply of
ingredient to the multinationals. They buy everything and sell it back to consumers at
tremendous profit, massive expense and environmental damage (air miles). The bag
of prepared salad that is so popular in Ireland has caused untold environmental damage
due to low exchanges for growers, aggressive farming methods, use of detergents
and pollutants in the water systems where the intensive farming is carried out.

Reducing vitamin supplements to RDA level and sponsoring through corporate
advertising globalised products which claim to ensure recommended RDA's is
simply a way of reducing consumer choices and of course corporate profits, it
also treats consumers as children who are uneducated about the issue of diet.
The Greens had supported the Health stores on many of these issues but they
are now in government and consequent government policy would point to their
support of amongst others the IMB.

by Don. Sun Sep 09, 2007 22:55

The reasons I was given my they dont sell stuff over the RDA, is that too much vitimin C can cause diarreha. Something like a few thousand milligrams. I think this is silly. I take a thousan milligrams a day. Thats 1667% RDA.

by updater Sun Sep 09, 2007 20:24

backround:-
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/79330
update:-
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1107...omnet