Ensuring safe supplements.

Most supplements are safe. But others, like ephedra, are downright dangerous. Tire challenge is to ensure that consumers can benefit from the good ones but be protected from the harmful ones.

As this issue's cover story explains, supplements--unlike food additives and drags--don't have to be tested and proven sale before they are marketed. Warnings aren't required on labels and in ads. Manufacturers don't have to notify, the FDA when they receive reports of adverse reactions. Some ads make supplements look like 21st century, snake-oil remedies (or, worse yet, like prescription drugs). And what goes into supplements is so uneven and unregulated that consumers play Russian roulette with their health when they swallow some pills or tonics.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has introduced legislation (S. 722) requiring supplement makers to report serious adverse events to the FDA and restricting the sale of stimulants like the herb ephedra, which has been blamed for scores of deaths. Congressman Henry Waxman of California is proposing related legislation in the House of Representatives. Modest as those bills are, the supplement industry is dishonestly charging that they are draconian measures that would take away the public's right to buy ordinary vitamins.

What we really need is a complete overhaul of supplement laws--to require that companies demonstrate that their products are safe, contain the right amounts of the right ingredients, and are honestly labeled and advertised.

Until that kind of legislation is passed, Congress should commission studies on the safety and effectiveness of the biggest-selling supplements. Ideally, the industry--not taxpayers--should bear those costs. How many more laver transplants and deaths would it take to make that happen?

Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D. Executive Director Center for Science in the Public Interest