Informed Debate Needed On Natural Health Products Bill

A leading herbalist has called for properly informed debate about the Natural Health Products Bill (until recently called the Natural Health and Supplementary Products Bill) saying that ongoing scaremongering and misinformation about the Bill could ultimately put consumers at risk.

Phil Rasmussen, founder of herbal extracts company KiwiHerb and a registered herbal medicine practitioner, says he has become increasingly frustrated at a small group of very vocal detractors who will stop at nothing to prevent the Bill’s passage into law.

Mr Rasmussen is also a board member of Natural Products NZ, the industry group that represents more than 80% of this country’s natural products companies.

“Emotions about the Bill are running high in some quarters but it is important to sort the fact from the fiction when considering what it really means for consumers and the natural health products industry,” he says.

The Natural Health Products Bill aims to regulate natural health products that are sold and marketed directly to consumers. It will not apply to products that are prescribed or directly made available through trained health practitioners or traditional medicine practitioners.

Mr Rasmussen says his business is typical of those that will be most affected by the Bill and its associated Regulations so he personally and professionally has a keen interest to ensure that its provisions are fair and workable for consumers, the industry, and natural health and traditional medicine practitioners alike.

“People could be forgiven for getting worried about the doom and gloom claims being bandied around, including assertions that large numbers of natural health products will disappear from shelves, costs will sky rocket, businesses will go under and bureaucracy will burgeon.

“Such claims are simply not true. Nor is it true the Bill will severely restrict the ingredients as well as doses allowed in natural health products.”

The Ministry of Health’s list of permitted ingredients already contains more than 5500 individual ingredients. Mr Rasmussen is a member an expert committee consisting of more than 20 academic, industry and practitioner experts who have been appointed to appraise more than 200 others that have been notified. Processes have been put in place for further new ingredients to be added in future.

He assures this list will include anything that is already accepted as a safe food ingredient, provided that dosage levels do not exceed current legal limits.

Importantly, the Natural Health Products Bill does not set out to establish new current legal limits for the vast majority of ingredients. Where new legal limits are applied then it will be possible to get those levels reviewed at no cost before the Regulations come into force (even after this stage costs will be kept at affordable levels).

“Over the past few years, I have extensively discussed the Bill and its implications with a wide range of companies, practitioners, and regulators. I feel the Ministry of Health has bent over backwards to try and accommodate the vast majority of natural health products that are currently sold in New Zealand and has made every effort to take the sector’s views into account,” he says.

“I am therefore curious to know why a small handful of companies believe that they will no longer be able to sell most of their products once the Bill comes into effect.”

Mr Rasmussen says it is significant that Natural Products NZ, the industry body that represented the vast majority of the natural products sector, strongly supports the Bill given that it directly affects its members.

“The Bill is actually good news for consumers because it will allow much more information to be included on product labelling thus helping people to make a more informed decision about natural health products. It will also give consumers a greater level of assurance that products are safe and that product in the bottle is in fact what the label says it is.

“The vast majority of products will still be available and there is no good reason why prices shouldn’t stay about the same as they are now.”

He commented that just because someone was shouting loudly about something didn’t mean they were right and nor did it mean that they represented the majority view.

“In reality the vast majority of New Zealand’s natural health products manufacturers – from very large companies to small manufacturers such as my own – actually support this legislation because we believe it will be good for business, good for consumers, good for the growing local natural health industry, and therefore good for New Zealand’s economy.”

For accurate information about the Bill, visit: http://www.naturalproducts.nz/natural-health-products-bill-faq/

ENDS

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