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For
years, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has been working
furiously to deny people around the world free access to vitamins
and other natural therapies. This UN initiative, if adopted, would
also ban information about the health benefits of vitamins and
reduce dosage levels so low that dietary supplements would no
longer have any therapeutic value. Matthias Rath, M.D. has been a
fierce opponent of Codex and each year, joined by thousands of
supporters, he has protested the passage of this unconstitutional
initiative.
The
last Codex Convention was held November 3–7, 2003 in Bonn,
Germany. In the face of European and worldwide opposition, the
Codex Commission has been trying to ban information and
health-related messages concerning natural remedies. It has also
been trying to reduce the maximum permitted amounts of dietary
supplements to levels at which they would no longer be effective.
On
November 2, 2003, representatives from 15 countries and almost
1,000 participants spoke out in protest against the planned laws.
The Dr. Rath Health Foundation had issued invitations to an
international protest event titled "Stop Codex" at the
Hotel Maritim in Bonn.
As
he took the stage, Dr. Matthias Rath was met by an enormous burst
of applause. "I would like to return this applause back to
you in this room because without you, I would not be here today.
And without the scientific discovery of Cellular Medicine, without
the distribution of the bestseller Why Animals Don’t Get Heart
Attacks... But People Do, there would be no Codex," stressed
Dr. Rath. "It is the breakthrough of Cellular Medicine that
represents such a threat to the pharmaceutical industry’s
billion-dollar market that they don’t know what to do other than
ban the spreading of information about it. All this at the expense
of the health of millions of people."
Only
the combined protests of thousands of people involved in Dr. Rath’s
health have prevented the pharmaceutical giants’ henchmen from
carrying out their unethical plans over the last seven years. With
this event and a widespread information campaign highlighting the
real goals of the Codex Commission, these laws, holding mankind in
such contempt, should also be stopped this year. The laws are
intended to prevent health statements about vitamin therapies
being made available to all people. They are also intended to
reduce the dosage levels of dietary supplements to amounts that
are entirely ineffective. For many years, draft bills have been
created by Codex under the guise of consumer protection, contrary
to the will of millions of people worldwide.
Dr.
Rath and the Dr. Rath Health Foundation have received massive
international support in their battle against Codex from 15
countries.
Dr.
Anthony Rees, co-founder of the organization, "Pharmapact"
came to Bonn from South Africa. Last year, he attended the Codex
convention as a press observer. This year, he served as an advisor
to the South African delegation. "The world is at very great
risk," said Dr. Rees. "People are at very great risk
thanks to Codex, because the huge group of pharmaceutical
interests is not at all interested in our health. For a country
like South Africa that for so long experienced repression, this
new gagging action is unacceptable. The South African government,
therefore, intervened, not to continue to regulate the health
importance of vitamins and natural remedies, but to help
disseminate them worldwide," emphasized Dr. Rees.
Eduardo
Luiz Barbosa from São Paulo, Brazil,
attended the
Codex meeting as the president of an umbrella organization for
Brazilian HIV/AIDS initiatives. Brazil currently carries 800 such
initiatives. "The right of all people to healthcare was
enshrined in the Constitution though even today, many people have
absolutely no access to a doctor or to therapists. With an
estimated 800,000 people suffering from AIDS and their meager care
from pharmaceutical agents, the major side effects continue to
shock us. I believe in the action of alternative natural therapies
since these are less harmful to people and they are based on
ethical principles," said Barbosa. For this reason, Barbosa
rejected the Codex plans. He expressed his gratitude for being
invited to the meeting and called for more freedom of choice for
everyone when it comes to alternative medicine. He concluded his
presentation with a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi: "The world
has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s
greed."
Dr.
Wong Ang Peng,
chairman of an association of natural
remedies in Malaysia, warmly welcomed everyone who came to Bonn to
defend the freedom of natural therapies. People in Asian countries
have a certain advantage with their familiarity of natural
remedies. Traditional Chinese medicine has been part of day-to-day
life for hundreds of years. There are still no problems in terms
of access to natural therapies in Asian countries. "We will
fight like tigers for the freedom of vitamins because if we lose
to Codex in Europe, we will lose in Asia as well," stressed
Dr. Wong Ang Peng.
Michael
D. Ostrolenk was
flown to Bonn from the US as an envoy of the organization Citizens
for Health. Although freedom of access to vitamins in the US has
been firmly embodied in law for years, politicians are always
fretting at this fundamental right. As a result, the same
politicians submit vitamin restrictive draft bills. Ostrolenk has
now brought together liberals and conservatives as well as
consumers and manufacturers in a campaign to fight these draft
bills. Above all, he is organizing an educational campaign and
doing what he can to ensure that bridges are built between various
organizations, associations and people.
Trueman
Tuck
from Canada, founder of health organization, Friends of Freedom,
discussed current national legislation at the Bonn convention.
"In Canada, you are forbidden to say that an orange contains
vitamin C and that this vitamin C protects the body against
disease," said Tuck. "This law dates back as far as
1920-1927. In Canada, more or less anything that provides a
natural cure is, therefore, declared to be medicinal." For
many years, Tuck, along with politicians, organizations, and
members of the public, has stood up for free access to dietary
supplements in Canada. Likewise, he defends doctors, non-medical
practitioners, and companies in court. These people have landed in
trouble because of their work with vitamins. So far, Tuck’s
greatest accomplishment is a pending bill that will ensure free
access to vitamins in Canada. The law already passed its second
reading in parliament and, hopefully, will soon be mandated.
"Go to your politicians! Tell everyone about the planned
legislative changes! We wish you all the very best!" he said
to the crowd.
Dr.
Gerhard Koschik from Austria
has been using the natural
remedies of Cellular Medicine in his practice in Graz for several
decades. "In the 31 years in which I have been practicing as
a doctor, I have not come across anything better than Cellular
Medicine," said Dr. Koschik. "I am proud to be a member
of the ever-growing Dr. Rath team. And, you too can play a part in
this success. Stand up for free access to vitamin therapy! Sign
the appeal for a referendum! I’m asking you to do this,"
said Dr. Koschik to the audience.
Frank
Thrier from Switzerland
supported the European initiative
for free access to vitamins from the point of view as a Swiss
citizen. "We have already made a good start on preparations
for the confederate national initiative, Free Access to Dietary
Supplements," said Thrier. "And we are winning prominent
members in a corresponding committee with whom to work. I had two
particular motives for getting involved in this initiative: My own
very good personal experiences with vitamins and the threat of the
Swiss parliament and government adopting all European decrees on
the public health system. We do need to change a lot of things for
the better, but adopting Euro-regulations that obstruct the use of
vitamins would only make everything even worse." Thrier
called for leadership in the audience: "We want to be an
example and an incentive for you. Emulate our campaign in your own
country!"
Dr.
Matthias Rath,
in his rousing speech, gave a brief overview of the history of
Codex and examined the background of the worldwide development of
the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, he gave a great
many concrete examples as evidence of the success of scientific
research into Cellular Medicine.
Dr.
Rath invited 15-year-old Christian
Rehse to the stage to share
his experience with Cellular Medicine. As an 11-year-old,
Christian was to be fitted with a pacemaker. However, by using
Cellular Medicine, he is now able once again to lead a perfectly
normal life without the need of an operation. "If the Codex
plans had already been adopted five years ago, Christian would not
be here today and he would not be able to pursue his favorite
hobby - playing football," said Dr. Rath in emphasizing the
living benefits of the battle waged against the Codex plans.
Ilona
Schmidt from Berlin also
touched the hearts of guests in Bonn with her story of ill health.
Schmidt’s brain tumor was cured through Cellular Medicine. Her
daughter, Manuela, spoke of the family’s joy and relief.
"Everyone…spread the news of the success of Cellular
Medicine! It’s the only way to help people. It’s the only way
to defy the Codex laws!" Manuela told the audience.
For
their unstinting research work at the Cellular Medicine Research
Institute located in Santa Clara, California, USA, Dr. Rath gave a
special thanks to Executive Director of Research Dr.
Aleksandra Niedzwiecki and Dr.
Vadim Ivanov. Dr. Ivanov is in
charge of research pertaining to cardiovascular disease in women.
"There is no greater reward for us scientists and researchers
than seeing our research results at work in the living examples of
so many patients," stressed Dr. Niedzwiecki.
The
broad support for Dr. Rath from so many organizations and people
from all over the world made this event a great success. Hence, it
is a profound step forward for establishing a new worldwide
healthcare system.
Decisions
of the 2003 Codex Alimentarius Commission
The
Codex Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses
(Codex for short) met in Bonn, Germany this year from November 3-7
to advance their proposals to ban information and health-related
messages concerning vitamins and minerals. They also considered
the reduction of the maximum permitted amounts of essential
nutrients to levels at which they would no longer be effective.
Codex
has been trying for the last seven years to introduce these
banning regulations, but thanks to the combined protests of
thousands of people from the health movement behind Dr. Matthias
Rath and the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, they have been prevented
from carrying out their unethical plans. Codex has been
infiltrated by pharmaceutical interests, whose influence extends
beyond the official delegations and into some of the so-called
natural health freedom organizations who have observer status at
the Codex meetings. Some of these organizations were already
celebrating victory before the Codex meeting ended based upon
flawed analysis of the proceedings. Such claims subsequently
proved to be unrealistic, indicating the level of influence that
the pharmaceutical interests wield within these organizations.
The
Dr. Rath Health Foundation remains one of the few truly
independent, natural health-promoting organizations that actively
participates in public health policy debates worldwide. It is thus
able to provide a clear, objective and accurate analysis of the
events at the 2003 Codex meeting.
What
Happened?
The
"Proposed Draft Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food
Supplements" were advanced to Step 5 of an 8-step process at
the 2003 session after a high level of agreement amongst the
delegations on most of the sections. Draft proposals can be
adopted as full Guidelines at Step 6 in this process, if there is
unanimous agreement within the Codex committee. Far from declaring
victory, continued vigilance and action is necessary. The fight
goes on.
The
most significant aspects of the current Codex proposals are as
follows:
The
South African delegation’s bold attempt to introduce positive
support for natural health therapies into the Codex machinery
was thwarted by the committee. South Africa proposed that Codex
should highlight the role vitamins and minerals play in the
prevention of chronic diseases, as laid out in the WHO’s
report "Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic
Diseases." This expert consultation document clearly
confirms that nutritional intervention can reduce the incidence
of diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure and many other
chronic diseases that have reached epidemic proportions
worldwide.
Ignoring
the recommendations of its own parent body (the WHO), the Codex
Committee chose to ignore the South African proposals. The South
African delegation has, however, been asked to coordinate a
working group that will develop proposals for new and revised
nutrient reference values (figures for average daily intake
requirements among normal populations - NRVs for short) that may
form part of the establishment of the upper safe levels limits.
The inclusion of NRVs in this process will be debated again at
the next Codex meeting in 2004.
Comment:
We should all applaud the
excellent work done by South Africa and continue to give their
delegation and the other delegations supporting their position all
the help and support they need to ensure that the level of
scientific knowledge and evidence that goes into the setting of
NRVs truly reflects the reality that vitamins, minerals and other
natural substances can prevent common diseases as set out in Dr.
Rath’s declaration at the World Summit in 2002 entitled,
"Health For All by the Year 2020."
Comment:
The
extra time that this development offers the health freedom
movement to continue the fight against Codex should not be wasted.
Comment:
A
positive move for natural health. RDAs represent merely the
minimum daily intake level for vitamins and minerals for the
avoidance of deficiency disease problems, and the idea that RDAs
should form the upper limits for these nutrients has always been
ridiculous.
Comment:
This may indicate that national
authorities currently regulating these products as drugs will
continue to be able to do so. Countries will not, however, be able
to change regulatory approaches for supplements once these
guidelines are enacted. Yet another good reason to continue the
battle to protect free access to essential vitamins and minerals
worldwide.
Comment:
The
possibility that this provision may lead to arbitrary restrictions
on the available sources, as was the case with the provisions of
the EU’s Food Supplements Directive, cannot be discounted.
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The
influence of the EU within Codex has grown measurably this
year and their delegation is trying forcefully to persuade
Codex to adopt the framework for vitamin and mineral
regulation, already laid down in Europe, on a worldwide basis.
Comment:
The EU
will become a full member of Codex in 2004, which makes support
for and implementation of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation EU-Referendum
more important than ever. The EU will act on behalf of 25
countries at next year’s Codex meeting.
Comment:
This was
the section upon which most of the ‘victory for health freedom’
claims were based. At first sight, the abandonment of reference to
RDA levels in setting upper limits for vitamins and minerals seems
to be a victory. In reality, the proposed terms upon which upper
safe limits may be set are wide open to interpretation and
manipulation, and could still result in arbitrarily low upper
limits that are not much better than RDA levels.
This
approach is being pioneered by the Australian delegation, which
will probably be asked to chair the committee responsible for
setting upper safe limits, if this section is agreed. It is,
therefore, important to know that Australia already regulates
vitamin and mineral supplements as drugs and not as foods.
There
is no scientific justification for any upper limits to be set for
vitamin and mineral intake, but if we do have to have them, let
them be based on true science and real observed effects. The role
of South Africa will be pivotal here.
Conclusions:
The
influence of the health freedom movement and the work of the South
African delegation to Codex have brought about a number of
victories for natural health freedom this year. At the same time,
while some completely absurd ideas, such as using RDA levels as
upper limits have finally been removed, this year’s Codex
meeting has accelerated the move toward overall proposals that may
have a very damaging effect on the availability of essential
vitamins and minerals worldwide in the future.
It
is, therefore, of paramount importance that all those interested
in preventing free access to these vital substances from being
compromised remain vigilant and engaged in the fight. The Dr. Rath
Health Foundation is leading the continued resistance to Codex
plans and calls for a united effort in pursuing the goal of
vitamin freedom for all.
We
have won some skirmishes, but the main battle goes on!
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