FDA has no designs on supplement laws

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has no plans to change federal law regulating dietary supplements, a Food and Drug Administration official told a House panel Thursday.

In response to questioning from Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah, Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told a House Government Reform Committee hearing that current law gives regulators sufficient authority to enforce laws on dangerous supplements.

"It does provide the ability for us to take action on unsafe dietary supplements." Brackett said. "At this point we have no reason to think we don't."

Some complain that the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act does not do enough to protect consumers taking supplements — many of which are made in Utah. But Brackett said the supplement industry "is regulated."

The hearing focused on a review of consumer safeguards on dietary supplements.

Ephedra is the only supplement banned by the FDA, yet the court is still undecided on whether the FDA can really prohibit its use.

Last year, the federal court in Utah took issue with how the FDA reached its conclusion to ban the supplement. The FDA has appealed.

Cannon — a self-proclaimed daily dietary supplement user — is founder and co-chair of the House Dietary Supplement Caucus said there are "good players" and "bad players" in the supplement industry and he stressed that steroids are not supplements.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, authored the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which Congress approved in 1994.

The industry is still waiting for the government to implement "good manufacturing practices" in production of their products and Cannon cautioned that he does not want these to make higher costs.

But the Consumers Union of the U.S. Inc., which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, said the law has "serious regulatory loopholes that have opened the floodgates to thousands of untested dietary supplement products."

According to testimony from Janell Mayo Duncan, the union's senior counsel, the group would like to see Congress create an expert panel to review supplement safety, create "pre-market" test requirements and require risks to be written on labels.

Regarding ephedra, Duncan said the court's interpretation of DSHEA "incorrectly calls into question the agency's implementation of the act." The union supports the appeal and any enforcement actions taken against ephedra.

---

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com