One of Canada’s leading natural health product manufacturers issued a public call for stricter regulations yesterday. While some natural health product manufacturers have been leading the fight against industry regulation, Vic Neufeld (Jamieson’s president and CEO) stated that Federal regulation has “been too slow and did not go far enough. The Canadian consumer has to be protected.”
He argues that current rules are so lax that Ottawa can’t even order harmful products off store shelves and is only able to issue toothless health advisories. Tougher standards are needed to protect public health from tainted materials in supplements.
While natural health products are regularly used by many Canadians, this may change if consumers aren’t adequately protected. The numerous health advisories and product warnings risk damaging consumer confidence.
Globe and Mail
The pressing need for more oversight was highlighted on Tuesday when Health Canada issued an advisory saying that a company inadvertently sold a product labelled as containing vitamin C that was improperly manufactured using vitamin A instead. The products were sold under the brand names of New Roots Herbal Vitamin C8 and Vitazan Professional Vitamin C Advanced Ascorbate.Health Canada warned the pills may contain high doses of vitamin A, exposing users “to potential risks of adverse events.” It urged consumers, particularly pregnant women, not to use them.
The warning is the latest in a long string of advisories Health Canada has made during the past two years over undeclared drugs, heavy metals and steroid hormones, among other deleterious substances, that have been found in some natural health products.
Mr. Neufeld said one weakness in Canada is that a company importing a health product ingredient only has to conduct safety tests on one shipment from offshore suppliers each year. In South Korea, by contrast, the government requires every batch that Jamieson sends there to be tested.
Tags: alternative therapies, drug regulation, Drug Safety, Natural Health Products, patient safety
