Bitter pill: proposed supplement regulations hard to swallow. (DC updates: David Seckman, CEO of the National Nutritional Foods Association, writes about political issues affecting consumers).

You might think conventional wisdom would dictate that any issue not directly connected to the war with Iraq, its aftermath and by-product concerns about homeland security would have been placed on the government's equivalent of the back burner over the past few months. But these are decidedly unconventional times. Given that fact, I note that Washington, DC, has recently become a regulatory and legislative hotbed of activity in regard to the natural products industry.

From a regulatory perspective, two proposed rules were issued that will have a major impact on consumers of dietary supplements. One of the regulations concerns manufacturing standards for dietary supplements, and the other suggests warning labels for products containing the herb ephedra.

the "safety" act

Legislatively, the National Organic Program survived a stealth attack that would have lowered its standards, and a bill was introduced that could significantly alter the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.

A surface reading of the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 (S. 722), introduced by Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), might lead you to believe that it only applies to certain types of supplements. However, bills are usually broadly written and thus subject to interpretation. Using a shotgun approach like this may ensure that you hit the target you're aiming for, but you're also likely to hit everything else in the near vicinity.

So even though this bill targets stimulants and certain performance-enhancing products for additional regulation, nearly all vitamins, minerals, herbal products and other supplements could be subjected to a level of scrutiny that we believe is both unwarranted and unnecessary.

Under this proposed legislation, any dietary supplement that receives even one complaint could be removed from the marketplace, regardless of whether the product had been used under conditions cautioned against on the label.