Efforts to harmonize rules on supplements between Australia
and New Zealand, by establishing a Trans-Tasman joint agency
for the control of natural health products have been going
on for some time. I previously reported on this. (The Tasman
Sea is a large body of water that separates New Zealand from
the Australian continent.)
The situation "down under" really got hot when the
Australian health products and medicines regulator (the
Therapeutical Goods Administration) in June 2003 yanked over
1600 supplements off the market over a pretext, and forced
the producer, PAN Pharmaceuticals, into bankruptcy.
How this ties in with the international plans of Codex
Alimentarius to "reign in" nutritional supplements is the
subject of an excellent article, quite a piece of
investigative journalism by Eve Hillary, a medical reform
advocate and health writer, which you find in the second
part of this post. In addition to discussing Codex, Eve
treats us to an in-depth report on the aftermath of the PAN
Pharma products recall and recent regulatory moves underway
in Australia.
It seems that Australia might be symptomatic of what we can
expect to happen the world over in the next few years, so
seems a good idea to study up on this. If we accept what Eve
Hillary says, that Codex really is "the sickness industry's
last stand", we should also pay attention to a comment I
recently received from a lady in the UK who is interested in
natural health. Introducing a new angle to what seems to be
a world wide Codex control agenda, she writes:
To understand what drives Codex and the Pharma agenda, you
need to understand the future direction of health care ....
The Pharma industry as it stands is in a cul de sac - it
needs to re-invent itself as a 'health' industry to survive.
So they started to explore
pharmaceutical genomics - as an
output of the human genome project, and discovered instead
nutritional genomics, which 50% of the time means that
chronic diseases can be treated, prevented and cured by
nutritional interventions. Proven. But these treatments
under current laws cannot be patented, nor protected - so
how can they gain ownership and make money from this, to
replace pharmaceutical revenues? (Sepp's comment: here is an
actual recent example of what nutrigenomics is coming up
with -
Vitamin E helps block Alzheimer's)
And this has given rise to the FSD (Food Supplements
Directive), Codex, Health Claims Regulations - so that when
the supplement sector is safely removed from the [public
health area] or reduced to a few major players, they can
trumpet the 'discovery' and own it and make money from it,
buy out remaining firms and make the financial barriers to
entry so large no one else can 'play' as they will be the
only operators that can afford to be in the game.
This view seems to be a perfect match to what is - according
to Eve Hillary - already happening in Australia.
And if you wonder about Codex actually protecting your
health, start researching what else they are doing, for
instance this information on a French site on the levels of
nuclear contamination Codex allows in foods. Another area to
look into is the advice Codex has on
genetically modified
organisms (GMO) in our foods, which sounds good but is
entirely toothless. Consider it is only due to continuous
consumer pressure that the uncontrolled spread of the highly
dangerous world wide GMO public feeding experiment is being
contained at least to some degree.
Anyway, back to Australia. Here is Eve Hillary's article:
CODEX – THE SICKNESS INDU$TRY’s LAST STAND
by Eve Hillary
April 1, 2005 Sydney
Preamble
Millions of words have been written about Codex. Few of
which have been printed in today’s mainstream media. The
data comes mainly from health freedom activists in various
countries and from obscure government documents hidden to
all but those who know where to look. In 2002 I unveiled
Codex to a Brisbane, Australia audience of 300 people. Only
3 knew anything about it. The same three I’d spoken with
before the lecture. I then wrote a chapter on Codex in my
book “Health Betrayal”. Thanks to health freedom activists
now Codex information is on many websites and a topic for
discussion around the world. But there remains official
SILENCE and deliberate misinformation from sources close to
corporations.
In writing this article it is my intention to reveal what
has been done to move us toward CODEX in the Asia Pacific
region. We must not allow this to happen if we value our
lives. It is my intention to shatter the silence that
threatens to engulf our freedom in order to allow its
effects to be reversed by the electors, the only legitimate
proprietors of government. But first, some definitions of
nutritional supplements and Codex located on footnotes
numbered 34 and 35.
Agree or Not
Even amongst activists, there is very little agreement on
the issue of Codex, partly because of official propaganda
that seeks to confuse the issue and partly because of the
incomplete picture that is being presented. I do not expect
the reader to agree with all that I write. I have sourced
the article extensively and admittedly, I have expressed my
own opinions and conclusions after studying dozens of
primary documents. However, I invite anyone to undertake for
themselves the exhaustive study that I have made over the
past 4 years on Codex and to analyse the many documents and
sources I have discovered, many of them in obscure archives.
Of the many interviews I have conducted, most of the
interviewees have not wished to be identified.
Some readers will agree that Codex is a menace but fail to
see how it has come to influence the Australia Pacific
region. I hope this article leads to that understanding and
reveals the tragic consequences to our families and way of
life so that we can take the appropriate steps to stop it. I
am indebted to many of my fellow activists such as Dave
Sloan from the NZ Health Trust and Sepp Hasslberger of
Health Supreme, for providing so much extra data that when
sifted through has only strengthened my conclusions on the
matter. (31,32) Please take what you like and leave the
rest.
To seasoned activists; I know you have heard some of it
before but there is much new information and I will unveil
some ideas you might find inviting. To all readers; we will
get to CODEX towards the end but it is important to
understand the secretive nature of events that have occurred
recently and the unusual laws passed by governments that
will put CODEX in a much clearer context.
Personal Note
I’m a health writer. I track the sickness industry. I watch
while powerful vested interests infiltrate governments of
sovereign nations. I watch and watch and then I write about
it. Lately I’ve been busy on some other issues and nearly
missed a hat trick that was being performed by our
politicians that would wrench freedom of choice out of the
people’s hands once and for all if we let them get away with
it. I discovered it just in time when an article came across
my desk entitled “The Codex threat to Australia – fact or
fiction?” written by a chap who sourced his information from
a few government websites. He opined that the Codex issue
was merely hype and nonsense and nothing much for Aussies or
anybody else in the world to worry about. His article was
published by the Australian Traditional Medicine Society, an organisation that is supposed to represent complementary
health practitioners and provide them with clear information
about exactly WHO’s in charge of making decisions about
supplements. Frankly, I expected such a hose-down article as
this to more likely appear in a pharmaceutical company trade
magazine or as a press release from the TGA. But I assumed
the drug giants have their own spin doctors, legions of
them. And they are quite content to have useful gophers
disseminate their whitewash to the rest of us. Later I
discovered the article’s author regularly sat on a TGA
committee called the Interim Advertising Council, which has,
along with several pharmaceutical front organisations such
as the Medicines Australia, CHC, and the Self-Medication
Industry set up an advertising agency that so blatantly
serves drug company corporate interests that even the AMA
objects to it on the grounds that “the process is occurring
against a backdrop of enormous pressure…from pharmaceutical
companies and others to open up to direct consumer
advertising”.(24,20)
I must however give thanks to the article in question, and
to its author, Raymond Khoury, for it led me to cast my
attention back to Codex and focus on a currently unfolding
disaster here in the Pacific region that is only avoidable
if the electors get a grip on the reins very soon. To
understand Codex, you need to know something of the sickness
industry which I will outline in the first section.
If you believe, as I do, that in time the stench of sleaze,
bribery, greed and dishonesty will reach the nose of the
ethical majority to be dealt with accordingly, then you
might agree that the sickness industry is about to collapse
in on itself by the sheer weight of its own corruption. This
is a time when the drug industry and our “regulators” are
committing some stupid and desperate acts against the human
rights of people. And our politicians don’t look good aiding
and abetting them. Remember their names, for it is they who
are accountable to us.
Getting Health Care into Perspective
It’s official. US research shows that inappropriate and
dangerous medical treatments and adverse drug reactions are
now the number one cause of death (4). To some it was no
surprise. It seemed an inevitable outcome from the 1980’s
when health care was taken over by “health care”
corporations and the pharmaceutical industry. Then the
bottom line in health care became profit instead of sending
the patient home well and drug free, if possible. (13)
There are still no Parliamentary enquiries into the deaths
of 18,000 Australians each year, killed by inappropriate
doctoring and prescribed pharmaceutical drugs that are
licensed by the TGA (the Australian regulator). The cause of
these avoidable deaths has been known by the government for
over ten years when Dr. Runciman made it known in a report
he prepared to the government in 1995. And yet nothing has
been done about it. This makes these unnecessary deaths a
deliberate act on the part of the perpetrators, the medical
and pharmaceutical industry and the Australian government.
This act is the equivalent of deliberately exterminating all
living beings from an entire large sized Australian country
town each year. (1,2,3). This killing for profit has been
going on knowingly for the past 10 years.
In addition to the death toll, 50,000 Australians are maimed
and disabled, not by their diseases, but by the “health Care
System” which includes; bad doctoring and serious or
permanent damage from drugs that were licensed by the TGA.
Yet there are no outraged politicians giving undertakings on
the Senate steps to find the culprits, to stop the
criminality of it, a fact in itself astonishing, since there
is a great deal of unnecessary killing and maiming going on;
187 Australians each day. That’s seven Australians killed or
maimed per hour. This is more Australians than were ever
killed in all the wars. By the time you have read this
another Australian will die or be disabled by inappropriate
medical treatment or an adverse reaction from a drug that
was licensed and approved by the TGA. Where are the
memorials erected to these victims? (1,2,3)
For those who rely on their information from the media,
where is the media reporting of this national catastrophe? A
few years ago the media went on a feeding frenzy about an
unfortunate person who died allegedly of an allergic
reaction to royal jelly, a naturally nutritious food that
worker bees feed to their queen bee. (Unfortunately many
more fatal allergic reactions occur annually than ever
before, to both synthetic and to natural substances, due to
the fact that general immunological health is declining
through environmental degradation.) The person had ingested
both the jelly and a meat sausage before the allergic
reaction occurred, one that could equally have been caused
by the preservative in the sausage. However, the TGA
launched a lengthy investigation into the royal jelly, and
required Royal Jelly to carry a health warning on the label.
The sausage, of course was not investigated, nor allocated a
health hazard label, one that the fatty, preserved product
could arguably deserve, since the nitrite preservatives in
sausages are responsible for many serious or fatal allergic
reactions.
WHO is the TGA?
The TGA (therapeutic goods administration) is the Australian
“regulator” of drugs, chemicals, genetically modified
products, medical devices and now nutritional supplements
and herbs which it calls “complementary medicines”. The TGA
was set up by Parliament over 20 years ago (on behalf of the
electors, you and I). Its motto is “to ensure the safety of
all Australians”.
Since its inception as “watchdog”, the TGA has licensed and
allowed genetically modified foods into the country which
opinion polls showed the overwhelming majority of
Australians did not want.
Despite hundreds of letters from concerned citizens and
chemically injured persons, the TGA has continued to allow
chemicals onto the market which are shown to have toxic
effects on humans even when used as directed.
In addition the TGA has licensed pharmaceutical drugs such
as Zyban, Vioxx and mercury laden vaccines among others,
despite available data about the potentially serious and
fatal effects these drugs have on humans. The TGA still
allows the drugs that cause a large proportion of the 18,000
deaths and 50,000 serious injuries through adverse drug
reactions while on the other hand it has compiled a large
data base on its regulation of natural substances including
vitamins, minerals, and even honey and olive oil, listing
them as medicines.
The TGA has taken over the regulation of nutrients which
have traditionally been produced by a separate and unique
industry and are not part of the pharmaceutical industry
because nutrients are not drugs, they are essential to all
humans. Most health conscious persons now take supplements
because it is known that food produced by modern agriculture
is depleted in essential nutrients. There can be no
“clinical trials” to determine whether persons need calcium
or any other essential nutrient. It is a well known fact
that all essential nutrients are needed daily. TGA regulates
nutrients virtually as drugs, with both under the heading of
therapeutic goods. Nutrients cannot really be regulated as
drugs because there is such a thing as nutrient deficiency
but there is no such a thing as Prozac deficiency.
The TGA maintains close ties to the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and to the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Domestically, it convenes various committees upon which sit
well known representatives of pharmaceutical interests and
pharmaceutical front organisations. (19,20,21) It regularly
consults with pharmaceutical and food companies such as
Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Eli
Lily, Glaxo, Pfizer, Wyeth and many other multination drug
corporations. Without Australians’ knowledge or consent, the
TGA routinely allows and invites corporations to make
decisions about Australian’s health. (23)
TGA Targets Pan
Globally there was one privately owned large supplier of raw
ingredients for the manufacture of nutritional supplements
that was big enough to be in direct competition with the big
drug companies. The supply chain of nutritionals and drugs
has been dominated by the multi-national pharmaceutical
industry such as Roche, Merck and Wyeth, to name just a few.
But Sydney based Pan Pharmaceuticals, was just such a
privately owned company, a relatively big player that
supplied most of Australia and some of the world with a few
pharmaceuticals but mainly with ingredients for the
formulation of nutritional supplements and a large variety
of natural supplement products.
In April 2003 the TGA raided Pan Pharmaceuticals, giving the
grounds that the company’s travel sickness product had
included a faulty batch. The company had already voluntarily
recalled it and was addressing the problem as was customary
in the industry to self address and fix problems as they
arose. However, TGA treated Pan far differently from the way
it had treated any multi-national drug company. The
regulator forced Pan to shut down and within a few days
recalled over 1600 natural supplement products with which
nothing was found amiss on the routine testing that had
occurred just previously. (5) The regulator created chaos
among consumers and retailers alike as the TGA recall went
on to become the largest recall of natural products in
history, all the more extraordinary since there had been no
complaints about the supplements.
Moreover, the vitamin and mineral supplements, which had
caused no known ill effects, were classed by the TGA as
necessitating a class 1 recall, meaning the regulator
claimed the natural products would “cause death or permanent
injury”. Since the TGA provided no evidence that any vitamin
or mineral, and in particular Pan’s had ever caused death or
disability to anyone the regulator deliberately set about to
claim, to the Australian public by way of calling a class
one recall, that these products were likely to cause death
or disability. This created wide spread anxiety about
nutritional supplements in the public mind. A feat that
would have cost the Pharmaceutical industry public relations
machine millions of dollars, was thus done overnight by the
TGA “regulator”. The ruse terrified scores of little old
ladies who thought their calcium tablet would kill them and
demanded a refund from their health food store, but it
failed to impress those who already knew about the war on
alternative and complementary health. And it particularly
failed to convince those who relied on logical and rational
data to come to their conclusions. What this deception did,
however, was to reveal the TGA double standard in favour of
drugs from drug giants and against natural products that
were produced by Australian companies who were big enough to
cut into multinational drug company market shares.
Meanwhile, any evidence that was in the mountain of recalled
vitamins and minerals, disappeared without a bubble.
This conclusion was particularly borne out by the way TGA
conducted future recalls. Interestingly, the regulator
conducted a class 2 recall on VIOXX a drug manufactured by
drug giant Merck, a drug which did cause death and injury to
55,000 Americans alone. A Class 2 recall meant the TGA
believed the “defects could cause illness…but are not class
one” that is, the regulator did not deem the drug could kill
or disable anyone, and this was after 55,000 confirmed US
deaths and 180,000 strokes and heart attacks occurred as a
result of the drug! (6). If Pan was shut down after nobody
complained about its vitamins or suffered a single problem,
then it would be reasonable for Merk to be shut down for
selling a drug that killed tens of thousands of Americans
alone. But no. TGA has not even conducted an investigation
into how many Australians or New Zealanders might have been
killed by the Drug Vioxx to which it issued a license. But
back to Pan.
Within days of the raid the hapless Pan company and its
founder were embroiled in official red tape and TGA forced
Pan to close its doors permanently. After the kill, someone
called in KPMG, the liquidator, so fast, that the owner, Jim
Selim was removed from his own company with the velocity of
a speeding bullet and the manufacturing plant and company
was sold lock stock and barrel, in only six months for a
pittance. The Pan company that Mr. Selim had built up over
20 years, worth over 500 million dollars was sold for only
20 million within a few months of the TGA raid. (10)
Interestingly, KPMG is a multinational power broker based in
Switzerland that deals in accounting, mergers, liquidation
and you guessed it, also chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
KPMG’s specialty however, is offering financial advice and
other consultant “services” to the pharmaceutical industry.
(8).
Over the ensuing 2 years the TGA has kept Mr. Selim busy in
a grueling round of court battles while the liquidator,
KPMG continued to pick the carcass clean. Recently, KPMG
filed a statement of claim against Mr. Selim for the amount
of 300 million over the collapse of Pan brought about by the
TGA. (10)
Since the Pan debacle, the beleaguered but apparently
spirited former owner of Pan intended to start another
business in Viet Nam as a manufacturer of health products
there but TGA and now ASIC (the Australian company watchdog)
is attempting to stop his manufacturing license in Viet Nam,
alleging irregularities in the paperwork. Interestingly,
most of the big pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis,
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have now set up offices in
Vietnam. (9, 10).
TGA on Post-Pan Rampage
After the TGA disposed of Pan, it systematically ran through
other small Australian vitamin and supplement manufacturers
like a dose of Epsom salts in a frenzy of “inspections” and
“regulatory activities”.
Small Australian-owned supplement manufacturers allege TGA
used a variety of intimidatory methods against them
including the halting of manufacturing operations and near
impossible requirements that cost over $500,000 to
implement. NZ Health Trust reports “recent reports out of
Australia … include comments such as compliance costs having
increased by 800% for one firm, another has had to spend an
extra $2 million in compliance costs, another still faces a
$1.86 million bill to upgrade their computer systems as now
required.” TGA officials allegedly demanded proprietors sign
confidentiality agreements and other agreements demanding
that the proprietor will not hold TGA liable for the loss of
their business after such “regulating activities”. (11)
Australian supplement companies remain silent after TGA’s
“inspections”. Many are bound by agreements and none I
interviewed wanted me to reveal their names in this article
for fear of a fresh round of “TGA regulatory activities”.
(Although a few are now considering legal action regardless.
An enquiry into TGA corruption should get these witnesses
testifying with a little help from a subpoena. )
The regulator routinely inspected the Australian supplement
industry in the 2 years before Pan, and did not suspend a
single manufacturer’s license but after Pan, dozens of
manufacturers were driven out of business and over 12
Australian supplement companies “voluntarily” turned in
their manufacturing licenses and went out of business after
TGA scoured through them. (All the manufacturers had already
passed previous years’ rigorous TGA inspections.) (18, 11)
Those who could afford it just paid the money and did what
was required of them to stay in business for the time being.
Other manufacturers sold out to big corporations for fire
sale prices. As a result of this witch hunt, many vitamin
and supplement product lines remain out of stock in
Australia and many nutritional supplements have been
permanently discontinued as have the smaller companies who
made them.
The question this begs is; if the Australian privately owned
supplement industry was running well and passing stringent
TGA regulatory inspections before Pan then why was the
Australian supplement industry gutted after Pan?
TGA and FRIENDS Set up Committee
In May 2003, only a month after TGA destroyed Pan, the
regulator issued a public statement alleging that “concerns”
had been raised about the quality of complementary medicines
(supplements) and indeed even the competency of
complementary practitioners (naturopaths). All this after:
1. the defective travel sickness pill was a drug and not a
supplement and had been removed 2. the company had been
closed, and dismantled, 3. none of the 1600 Pan dietary
supplements were found to have caused any problems, and 4.
no naturopath or alternative practitioner had killed or
harmed anyone! (In the time it takes you to read this far
another 4 Australians have been killed or seriously injured
by dangerous medical procedures or pharmaceutical drugs
licensed by the TGA while no patient has died from taking
supplements or seeing a naturopath.)
Ignoring all the evidence to the contrary, The TGA stated on
its website; “In May 2003, to reassure the public and
maintain confidence in Australia's reputation as a supplier
of high quality and safe medicines, the Australian
Government established the Expert Committee on Complementary
Medicines in the Health System (the Expert Committee)”
The TGA “expert” committee designated to investigate
supplements includes pharmaceutically orientated individuals
and several pharmaceutical front organsiations. (12) The
committee has been busily at work during the past 2 years
and it has recently released fifty more expert
recommendations that has resulted in 107 pages of proposed
amendments to the TGA Act which would increase the powers of
the TGA to “regulate” even more stringently. This would give
it police powers and the power to impose criminal charges
and penalties on Australian supplement manufacturers. All
this when there has never been a problem with supplements.
Notably, another “expert” Committee member who had helped
deal another fatal blow to Australian supplement
manufacturers included the Vice President of manufacturing
operations in the Asia Pacific Region of Wyeth, a
multinational drug company that markets drugs, vaccines and
also nutrient supplements including the raw ingredients to
supplements. (12)
Just before Pan’s demise, Wyeth was in direct competition to
the products and raw ingredients that Pan supplied in the
Asia Pacific region. Wyeth has a huge Asia Pacific base of
operation and is aggressively expanding its corporate
territory. (16) Interestingly, Wyeth’s profits plunged a few
months before the Pan affair and the company was only saved
a substantial loss that quarter by its small but profitable
range of vitamin products. (17) (14, 15). (Another topic,
perhaps for a Parliamentary enquiry into corruption.)
The Agenda
Without Australians’ knowledge or consent the TGA gave
multinational drug companies the power to expand into and
monopolise Australian markets and shake out the Australian
competition, all under the guise of protecting the
Australian public health when there is nothing more than a
trade war going on. As is customary in wars of any kind,
people die in trade wars too, and another Australian has
died as you read this because our regulator is busy
suppressing supplements while allowing drug companies to
control the market and sell some particularly dangerous
drugs. Despite the shakeout, however, many small fry
companies did survive and while the pesky little Aussie
battlers were still taking a breath, the corporates and
their TGA friends had to swing into action on an urgent
agenda.
The giant drug companies had long ago swallowed the small
pharmaceutical manufacturers and even merged with each other
to form huge drug company conglomerates. They now competed
with each other in a global market. This was aided by
various treaties and trade organizations such as the World
Trade Organization (WTO) that allowed multinationals free
access to all countries’ markets without barriers. Countries
become giant lucrative markets when governments attempt to
make vaccines and other drugs compulsory for their citizens.
By now the only real cut into drug company profits was the
number of people that stayed healthy or got healthy from
taking regular supplements - bad news for drug sellers. In
addition, nutritional supplement manufacturers prospered on
healthful products which again cut into drug company profits
and market share. Some drug companies then diverged into
making supplement lines and it is those products that are in
competition with local manufacturers. Coupled with the bad
publicity drugs are getting for contributing to the highest
cause of deaths in the US, the new challenge for drug
companies was to make drugs look healthy and good, to make
them more available over the counter and to make vitamins
and supplements look dangerous with the exception of those
made by drug companies.
For that, the multinationals needed the following:
1. The World Trade Organization (WTO) for gaining entry into
domestic markets and levelling the competition.
2. World health organization (WTO) Codex committee that sets
“standards” for all supplements to be classed as drugs,
which can only be allowed to be made synthetically by drug
companies in line with “international standards” and not by
local manufacturers using inexpensive natural raw
ingredients.
3. A corporately structured regulator out of the elector’s
reach who would “regulate” wholly in the interests of the
drug companies.
4. An international treaty (Joint trans-Tasman treaty) that
would set up a new international regulator of Australia and
New Zealand (the Trans Tasman joint Agency) that would be
run as a corporation – even easier for drug corporations to
manage.
5. An advertising agency that would serve the new Trans-Tasman
Joint Agency with an advertising code that would “legalize”
a way of advertising multinational’s pharmaceutical drugs
directly to consumers, while at the same time the
advertising code would prevent supplements from being
advertised. These aims required a whole gaggle of government
persons to draft up some tricky new laws, this time in the
form of an international treaty.
The Treaty Not Many Knew About
In the months after the Pan debacle an international treaty
between Australia and New Zealand was being drafted by
persons unknown to the Australian electorate. The treaty is
called “Agreement Between the Government of Australia and
the Government of New Zealand for the Establishment of a
Joint Scheme for the Regulation of Therapeutic products”,
and is known as the JTA treaty for short.
This treaty was signed on December 10, 2003 by the health
Ministers of both countries without any public debate and
without the consent or consultation of Australian or New
Zealand electors. It is certain to have major consequences
to health freedom of these countries, in that it will make
the new regulating agency even less accessible to the
scrutiny of the electorate. It is intended to come into full
effect on July 1, 2005 if Australians do not stop this
enactment process by telling their Parliamentary
representatives and the Australian Health minister who
signed it that no legislation that is passed by stealth has
legitimate force of law in a democracy.
The Agency Not Many Knew About
The JTA treaty is intended to be the purported “legal”
foundation upon which a monstrously powerful “world class”
regulatory “agency” has been created. Known as the “Agency”
or “the Trans-Tasman Joint agency” it would do away with the
TGA as a statutory entity, which was at least theoretically
accountable to Australian electors and it would render
Medsafe the New Zealand regulator absorbed within its
tangled structure. With those two entities nullified the
newly born mammoth “Agency”, scheduled to come into effect
on July 1, 2005 is in fact structurally an off shore
corporate business set to be run by a chairman of the board,
a managing director, two persons with “regulating
experience” and a person with “broad experience in
commercial matters”. This throws the powerful new Agency
wide open to administration by corporate interests and also
removes it a further step from the Australian and New
Zealand elector and into the direct jurisdiction of the
World Health Authority global regulator CODEX. (18)
This process has been conducted in such a secret manner that
even Dr. Robyn Napier the AMA representative said of it;
“the process has largely occurred without the knowledge of
the public.”
HARM-onizing our Kiwi Cousins
One of the “fringe benefits” to corporations of the JTA
treaty with New Zealand and its follow-on “Trans Tasman
joint Agency” is to ensure trans-Tasman harmonization of
therapeutic goods takes place expediently. That is, to force
the Australian “regulatory standards” onto New Zealand’s
supplement industry which up until recently enjoyed relative
prosperity and freedom. “Harmonization”, creates the same
global standards in each country that are in the interests
of multi-national companies. Aussies have been designated as
the vitamin police to do the dirty work in the South Pacific
region.
Immediately after Pan was disposed of, extra plane loads of
gray be-suited men from the TGA were flown across the Tasman
at taxpayer’s expense to do to the KIWI industry what TGA
did to the Australian supplement industry – making way for
the big corporatations. (Kiwi is a slang word meaning New
Zealand or New Zealander). They’ve done this with hard
earned Australian tax money without consulting the electors
whose interests they should have been serving but didn’t.
Like a squad of mafia hit men the TGA visited upon our Kiwi
cousins its new “international standards in regulatory
excellence” and sent their vitamin businesses to the wall as
they “regulated” their way through Kiwi companies like an
over-dose of cascara (cascara-a diarrhea inducing herb when
taken in high doses). Our cousins did not appreciate our
HARM-onizing efforts, as their many websites and activists
attest. Aussies, however, took no notice of their kin across
the Tasman. They continued to allow the corrupt regulator to
cook up yet another scheme.
The Trans-Tasman Advertising Scheme Not Many Knew About
In mid 2003 the Pan carcass was barely cold but the TGA
remained a hotbed of activity. With so much big business
coming together under the JTA treaty and its “Trans-Tasman
joint Agency”, TGA embarked on a new round of committees
that ensured the panopoly of corporations would have a
collective voice in the media to advertise their goods. New
“standards” had to be urgently drafted up by the TGA (in
consultation with its friends) that would be known as the
“Therapeutic Products Advertising Code”.
To many Australian electors it would seem unusual for its
official regulator to collaborate with media moguls and drug
executives and create an advertising agency, but that is
what happened in mid 2003, when one of the first of a series
of many consultation meetings took place with the
“stakeholders”. The advertising agency would come to be
called the trans-Tasman advertising scheme. Among the
delegates attending were representatives from Unilever,
Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, ReckitBenckiser, Procter and
Gamble, and Roche. (19, 20). Later in the year a similar
meeting was convened at the Sydney Masonic hall and attended
by many delegates including from Eli Lilly, News Ltd, Boots,
various advertising agencies, Faulding, Astra Zeneca,
Baxter, Glaxo, Boehringer Inngelheim, Fairfax, Merk,
Novartis, Schering Plough, Pfitzer, Roche and of course who
else but Wyeth. [Further explanatory note in reference
number (21)]
Dr. Robyn Napier of the AMA, normally an ultra conservative
organization, stated in her submission to a Parliament
committee on April 30 2004; “the process is occurring
against a backdrop of enormous pressure on a number of
fronts, including: (pressure) from pharmaceutical companies
... to open up direct consumer advertising. To down schedule
medicines to categories where direct consumer advertising is
possible.” (24)
It seemed the drug companies were finally going to be able
to write their own advertising “code of ethics” allowing
them to advertise their prescription drugs over the media.
This necessitated that prescription drugs would be down
regulated to become over the counter drugs. The doctor’s
organization was unhappy about this but did not cite patient
safety concerns such as the new regulations allowing a
confused grandma or teenager to purchase prescription drugs
directly from the chemist. On the other hand the code was
also drafted in such a way as to tighten up regulations on
supplement advertising making it virtually impossible to
even mention a positive health effect from a vitamin in
public!
The Front Organisations
Some time ago I noticed that a world wide dietary supplement
trade organization called the Council for Responsible
Nutrition (CRN) seemed to pop up regularly on Codex
committees in Europe and it also wafted around the Aussie
TGA. The CRN has chapters in most developed countries and
takes a lead role in advising governments on issues such as
nutritional supplements. It represents over 100 companies in
the “dietary supplement industry”.
On January 1, 1999 the CRN and another trade organization
merged to form the Complementary Health Council of Australia
CHC a “peak body” that claims to “represent the
complementary health care industry in Australia”. Its
executive director is Val Johansen who has; “held positions
in the Australian Public Service as head of food standards
at Federal level and she also established the Therapeutic
Goods Administration’s surveillance unit, which she headed
for almost four years,” according to her bio. (28) Ms
Johanson has been ever present in most TGA complementary
medicine’s committees and is a member of the Interim
Advertising committee which has determined the Trans-Tasman
advertising schemes’ advertising “code”. In an article
published in the ACNEM Journal in 1999, she claims that the
new reforms the regulator has brought in means “growth in
the supplement industry” and consumers having access to a
wider range of safe complementary health products, as well
as balanced and factual information.”
The CRN’s membership (now Ms. Johanson’s CHC) includes
multinational corporations such as: Eastman chemical
company, BASF, Bayer corporation, Monsanto and the ever
present Wyeth pharmaceutical company whose interests are
represented by the organisation. (26.27)
The CODEX They Tell You Isn’t Real
The public constantly sends me information asking me to
comment on it. Recently a flurry of official information
updates have landed on my desk, all from the Ms Johanson’s
Complementary Health Council (CHC). The updates have been so
widely disseminated to groups and individuals that I thought
there must be someone on round the clock duty at
headquarters. Interestingly I have seen almost identical
information originating from similar trade and front
organizations in other countries.
In essence, the official CHC “tech update” alleges: CODEX is
only about food and not about supplements. The public is
being ill informed about CODEX and confused by persons on
the internet with “alarmist views” who “do not fully
understand how Codex works”. It says the only Codex
representative Australia has is from the fisheries
department and he doesn’t make decisions about supplements,
(only fish). And no one in Australia is sitting on any Codex
committee having anything to do with vitamins and
supplements. Only about food. Nothing about supplements… (29
) In an extra warning in bold letters the CHC urges all
members to be cautious of CODEX information from the
internet and other forums, claiming it may be “inaccurate”,
“alarmist” and “ill informed”.
I read the two page “article” and immediately suffered a bad
case of deja`vue. It sounded so much like Raymond Khoury’s
article I could have sworn it was written by one and the
same person and merely recycled - possibly not surprising
since both Ms. Johanson and Mr. Khoury are on the same TGA
committees.
AUSSIES Deep in CODEX
For many years now Australians have been regularly sent on a
nice trip to CODEX in Europe by their government, which
officially denies Codex exists in the context of
supplements. In November 2003 an Australian delegation
landed in Bonn, Germany. They must have felt cold coming
from the Aussie summer. The three day CODEX meeting was to
be hosted by the Federal Republic of Germany.
Inside the stark German Government building the 25th session
was held of the “CODEX COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION AND FOODS FOR
SPECIAL DIETARY USES”. It was convened by the authoritarian
President and Chairman Herr Rolf Grossklaus. (I should say
at this point there was no one from the Aussie fisheries
department present in the Aussie delegation.) The session
was well attended by 225 delegates and advisors representing
48 member countries, including Australia and 29
organisations and multinational companies.
Herr Toepner from the German Federal Ministry opened the
meeting with a timely reminder of why they were all here;
“to protect the health of consumers, to ensure ‘fair trade
practices’ and the committee’s important responsibilities
under the WTO”. (WTO is the global trade police ensuring
trade barriers fall, local competition is removed and global
corporations can dominate national markets – all in the name
of “world class standards” and “fair trade practices”.)
Herr Toepner apparently stressed the same message given to
the delegates with TGA HQ, for they made a terrific effort
at the CODEX meeting. The Chairman was well pleased with
their work. The funereal looking Herr Grossklaus happily
accepted the Australian proposal to apply a “risk” analysis
to nutritional supplements. The committee once again
expressed its appreciation to the “Delegation of Australia
for its work in this important area and agreed that a
“risk-based approach” should be followed for the
establishment of upper limits for nutrients,” stated the
2003 CODEX minutes report. That meant the Committee was busy
putting a limit on the amount of supplements we are allowed.
The Aussies agreed with the Chariman that the next 2004
Codex “session should be kept informed of the progress
achieved by WHO in order to facilitate its further work on
vitamins and minerals.” (Author’s translation of meaning of
this is in footnote 33)
Moreover the CODEX observer from the Council for responsible
nutrition agreed wholeheartedly - (remember, the Aussie
chapter of the CRN merged with Ms Johansen’s CHC) - Probably
much to the approval of its members Bayer, BASF, Monsanto
and of course, Wyeth.
Among the CODEX participants that year, there were at least
eleven multinational food and pharmaceutical companies
including of course, Nestle and Roche. However, three
participants were from - you guessed it – Wyeth.
The 2003 CODEX must have been such a success that one of the
Aussie delegates, Ms. Janine Lewis, Principal nutritionist,
returned with another delegate the following year, Ms. Jane
Allen, Senior nutritionist. Both are employees of the Food
standards Australia and New Zealand, a sister department of
the TGA that has joint committees with the TGA. The two
departments share personnel, resources and identical
agendas.
Interestingly, Val Johanson of CHC states in her bio that
she; “held positions in the Australian Public Service as
head of food standards at Federal level and she also
established the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s
surveillance unit, which she headed for almost four years.
Positions currently held include; member of the
Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee, Chair of the
Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council, Head of the
International Herbal Regulatory Task Force of the
International Alliance of Dietary Supplement Associations”.
There is much confusion deliberately generated to obscure
the real agendas. Is our participation in CODEX about food
or supplements (therapeutic goods). The answer is both. This
is what a law link had to say about the legal interface
between foods and supplements after the changes to the
therapeutic goods act that was rammed through after Pan.
“Food can now be a therapeutic good. The TGA is now able to
designate food items as therapeutic goods. Previously,
prescribed foods were not classified as therapeutic goods.
Now, where a food product prescribed under the Australia and
New Zealand Food Standards Code is designated by TGA as
having therapeutic properties, the TGA may declare the
product to be a therapeutic good, and therefore as subject
to regulation under the Act.” (30)
That includes vitamins and supplements which the TGA Act
regards as medicines and drugs under the title of
therapeutic goods.
The TGA has this to say about food being classed as
medicine;
“products which may fit within the definition of either a
food or a medicine [supplements] are referred to a joint TGA/FOOD
STANDARDS Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) committee which
recommends whether the goods should be regulated as a
therapeutic good or as food."
This means TGA/FSANZ sends delegates to CODEX to get their
orders about supplement regulations from overseas.
There is no more point to denying it. Australia happens to
be up to its didgeridoos in CODEX – in a last ditch effort
for the drug industry to stay in the game by attempting to
dominate God given natural nutritional vitamins, minerals,
oils and herbs before the word gets out about their drugs
contributing to the leading cause of death.
For all those who are Upset about CODEX/TGA and Want to Help
Restore Sanity (Those who want to stay in the asylum can stop reading here)
Aussies are unique in the world. Most of the time they are
asleep at the wheel, or in front of the telly watching the
Footy Show. However, once they know what’s going on they are
liable to take actions that no one in the world except New
Zealanders would think of doing. Both Australia and New
Zealand have similar ethics. Their motto is having a fair
go. And neither will tolerate corruption once made aware of
it. And there is plenty of corruption. Corporates are
running the government, originating thousands of laws
against vitamins and raw milk and any other thing that can
be controlled and rationed for profit. And the pollies are
passing them. Here’s a list of suggestions of what Aussies
have planned for the future. New Zealanders or anyone in the
world are welcome to join;
1. Aussies love to travel.
So, delegations of Aussie citizen
observers will contact the Food Standards Australia and New
Zealand at PO Box 7186, Canberra ACT 26110, Telephone +61 2
6271 2245 or Fax: 62712278 and they will require that the
department organize their official entry as observers into
the next Codex meetings of the Committee on Nutrition and
Foods for Special Dietary Uses. If you want to be a citizen
observer and participant please start your own group now or
join another group, and don’t let Val or anyone else tell
you CODEX isn’t there. Don’t forget to take plenty of
supplements over on the trip with you because they are very
expensive in Germany.
2. Aussies hate dishonest politicians. So they will be
forming an Independent Citizen’s Commission on Government
Corruption, comprised of ordinary Aussies or Kiwis with a
good set of ethics to find out why the politicians are
letting corporations run the Australian government. They’re
going to find out the culprit’s names, conduct an
investigation and make recommendations about actions that
hold individuals accountable for their actions. This
includes legal action. Why only let the government have all
the fun with fining, suing and prosecuting us? Why not start
some action of our own? You are free to start your groups in
every State and in every country and share information just
like corporate governments share about us.
3. Aussies and Kiwis agree on the democratic model to run
their country. They insist on being told about treaties and
laws before corrupt or uninformed politicians slide these
pretend laws through their Parliament in the dead of night.
They are upset about not being told and reserve the right to
not recognize any laws or treaties that get done that way!
Those who wish to reserve this right are not bound by these
acts of betrayal to their freedom. To better understand
their inalienable rights they may go to common law courses
and educate themselves on what they can do about laws that
conflict with their constitutional rights. (36)
4. Aussies and Kiwis are resourceful. They have a lot of
natural resources and can swap, exchange, grow or produce
most anything that hasn’t been tariffed, controlled,
poisoned, regulated, irradiated, advertised or adulterated
by a corporation. They are setting up groups by the dozens
that will bring about self sufficiency, leaving the
regulators to regulate themselves or they can regulate those
who have ventured so far from sanity that they wish to have
their carrot juice regulated by CODEX.
5. Ethical Aussies and Kiwis don’t like corrupt bureaucrats
lying to them. Form now on they will keep a record of public
lies and attempts to mislead. They will expose the lie and
the ones telling it in public.
About Eve Hillary:
Eve Hillary is a Health Freedom Advocate based in
Sydney. She a medical analyst, public speaker and writer on
issues pertaining to the health care industry and
environmental health. She is the author of Children of
a Toxic Harvest: An Environmental Autobiography, and
numerous articles relating to health issues. Her most recent
book is Health Betrayal; Staying away from the Sickness
Industry. Eve has spent 25 years in health care where she
has observed the medical industry at first hand from the
inside. evehillary@smartchat.net.au
or eve@evehillary
References and Endnotes
(1) “Health horror revealed” by Samantha Maiden published in
the Hobart Mercury 31 July 2001
Wilson RM, Runciman WB, Gibberd RW, et al. The Quality in
Australian Health Care Study. Med J Aust 1995; 163: 458-471.
(2) O’Hara D, Carson NJ. Reporting of adverse events in
hospitals in Victoria 1994-1995. Med J Aust 1997; 166:
460-463.
(3) National Expert Advisory Group on Safety and Quality in
Australian Health Care. Interim report – Commitment to
quality enhancement. July 1998.
(4) This figure is based on analysis of data from the
Nutritional Institute of America (NIA)…assessing 2001 data
showed that iatrogenic (caused by doctors and drugs) disease
caused 783,936 deaths in contrast with 699,697 deaths from
heart disease and 553,251 from cancer. The NIA report–
“Death by Medicine,” authored by Gary Null, Ph.D., Martin
Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MS and Dorothy Smith, Ph.D. –
followed a US Agency for Healthcare Research study published
in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
(5) Pan-WHO was Behind the Biggest Vitamin Recall in
History?
A three Part Feature Article on who was behind the world’s
largest recall. Filed May 12, 2003 By Eve Hillary
www.evehillary.org
(6) http://www.tga.gov.au/recalls/2004/vioxx.htm
(7) http://www.4-men.org/mens-health/vioxx-recall.html
Dr. Graham also told the Senate Finance Committee that Vioxx
may have caused 55,000 deaths alone, more than the 28,000
projected by the FDA. Graham also indicated Vioxx may have
caused as many as 160,000 heart attacks, strokes and deaths,
combined.
(8) Internet website KPMG Graduate Recruitment?KPMG. AUDIT.
TAX. ADVISORY. bright minds ... company specialising in
sales of foods and pharmaceutical products that has branches
through the country. ...
(9) OTC Healthcare in Vietnam ... Most of the leading
international pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis,
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have set up representative
offices in Vietnam ...
www.euromonitor.com/OTC_Healthcare_in_Vietnam
(10) “Pan Boss on Notice” by Jennifer Sexton March 18, 2005
The Australian Newspaper
(11) This author interviewed several manufacturers, none of
whom have given permission to use their names for fear of
further problems with the TGA
(12) http://www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/cmreport.htm
(13) “Corporate Casualties” an article by Eve Hillary
(14) http://www.biopharmalink.com/companies/1224.htm Wyeth
(15) http://www.devicelink.com/expo/nu04/exhibitinfo.html
(16) http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/opp/cases/wyeth.html
(17) Vitamins Buoy Wyeth
(18) From Senate documents:
(19) As stated in the JTA treaty page 8.
(20) http://www.tga.health.gov.au/tta/advtt.htm
(21) The stakeholders meeting was understandably frequented
by industry, however, meanwhile the main Advertising Council
Committee at the TGA headquarters was infiltrated by the
drug industry front organization representing the interests
of the multinational industry including ASMI, SMI, the
Researched Medicines Industry, Medicines Australia and CHC.
These organizations represent the interests of dozens of
multinational drug companies. The CHC also represents the
interests of corporations. See link
(22) Grossklaus and Mathioudakis: Nutrition not relevant to
Health
(23) List of attendees at the Interim Advertising Council
Consultation Meeting Hosted by TGA on July 1, 2003.
(24) AMA public submission document to the Joint Standing
Committee on Treaties inquiry into the Agreement between
Australia and New Zealand for the establishment of a Joint
Scheme for the regulation of therapeutic products. 30th
April, 2004, by Dr. Robyn Napier, Representative of the AMA
on Trans Tasman interim advertising council.
(25) www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/251/al03_26e.pdf
(26) http://proliberty.com/observer/20040111.htm re CRN
(27) http://www.crnusa.org/who_omc.html#other
(28) http://norsearch.scu.edu.au/conferences/nat_safe/conf_speakers.html
(29) Tech Update from CHC entitled CODEX, the Facts without
fiction, signed off by Alan Crosthwaite, Technical director
CHC.
(30) Changes to the Therapeutic Goods Act
(31) www.nzht.co.nz New Zealand health Trust
(32) Sepp Hasslberger
(33) (Translation: under that proposed further work on
vitamins, you couldn’t even make yourself a carrot juice or
squeeze yourself an orange juice without being likely to
exceed CODEX guidelines for vitamins. This is done so
anything exceeding the Committee’s low recommended daily
intake can be classed as a drug and sold for a huge profit
in a synthetic form rather than to allow cheap naturally
derived supplements made by local manufacturers to be freely
available. In Germany where CODEX guidelines are already in
place drug companies now exclusively provide miniscule doses
of vitamin preparations that must be dispensed by a chemist
and are sold for exorbitant prices. Naturopaths and
wholistic doctors have been prescribing therapeutic doses of
vitamins for over a hundred years with excellent effect and
now this area of health and medicine may be disregarded for
the sake of drug company profits.)
(34) When I refer to Codex I refer to the Codex Alimentarius
Commission, a branch of the World Health Organisation which
oversees A CODEX COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION AND FOODS FOR
SPECIAL DIETARY USES. This committee meets annually. There
are hundreds of delegates in attendance from 48 member
countries to representatives of giant food and
pharmaceutical corporations. Dr. Wong Peng, Director of The
Humanitarian Project - Health For All, in Malasia was
present at the 2003 Codex committee held in Bonn Germany. In
a summary of that meeting Dr. Peng writes: “Driven by the
interest of their multinational corporations, particularly
from the pharmaceutical and food manufacturing industries,
the EU put forward suggestions that will eventually protect
the interest of these industries.” This Codex committee
purports to decide whether or not we in the world can have
vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients and how
much we can have, and if so, who will provide them. The
Codex recommendations have been enacted by the governments
of many countries already, and are about to be enacted in
the EU and possibly in the US in the future. (22) More about
WHO is Codex later.
(35) When I refer to nutritional supplements and essential
nutrients I refer primarily to all the essential nutrients
including minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and omega oils
that are essential to sustaining a physical human body on a
daily basis, without which there would be no health, healing
or life. These are not drugs. They are the nutrients
everyone must ingest daily to sustain physical health and
maintain life in a physical body. These essentials have been
found abundantly in food in the past.
However, “modern” agriculture under the influence of
multinational chemical companies has been responsible for
the depletion of soils from which poor quality foods are
grown that are depleted of essential nutrients. To retain
their health many people have resorted to taking nutritional
supplementation of essential nutrients. In many countries
these supplements are now regulated as drugs due to the
Codex influence upon the regulators. Essential nutrients are
not drugs. They are as essential to life as is oxygen or
water. Any excess nutrients are excreted just like oxygen or
water.
The proposed Codex restriction on nutrients is dangerous and
arguably genocidal. It is the same as if a corporation were
to deplete the earth’s atmosphere of oxygen and then
monopolise and regulate people’s supply and intake of
“supplemental” oxygen, calling oxygen a “drug” that can only
be purchased at an exorbitant price from the corporation
that caused the problem in the first place. There is no
difference.
(36) www.upmart.org
