(Salt Lake City, Utah / June 21, 2006) The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), a coalition of leading natural products manufacturers, distributors and quality assurance companies, today hailed the introduction in the United States Senate of bipartisan legislation to mandate the reporting of serious adverse events related to the consumption of dietary supplements. The legislation, the 'Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Drug Consumer Protection Act' was introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

Dietary supplements have a very safe track record, so these serious adverse reactions are few and far between.

Such a commonsense change would provide better early warning signals in the rare event a serious adverse event occurs. It could more rapidly identify a batch of products that have been adulterated or tampered with. This is even more pressing today in the face of the growing threat of bioterrorism, a concern to the food industry as a whole.

Such a change will increase consumer confidence in the safety of their supplements and help companies more rapidly identify and correct a problem, should one occur. It will assure consumers that serious adverse events are rare, and that problems will be promptly investigated. UNPA commends Senators Hatch, Durbin, Harkin, Enzi and Kennedy for their leadership and hard work to bring this important bipartisan legislation forward. UNPA is committed to continuing to work with other industry and consumer groups to promote prompt passage of the bill by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

UNPA will also continue to promote other important steps to assure Americans continued access to high-quality natural healthcare products and dietary supplements. It is continuing to press the Bush Administration to publish final Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for dietary supplements, a much needed reform that has been delayed for years. In addition, UNPA continues to advocate funding increases for the Food and Drug Administration to expand enforcement of Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act standards. Finally, UNPA continues to call for expanded support of rigorous, unbiased scientific research on dietary supplements.

Contact: Loren Israelsen, Executive Director, United Natural Products Alliance.
Phone: (801) 474-2572 / Fax: (801) 474-2571
e-mail: [email protected]