I just posted this at the sci.life-extension goup, I thought I'd post
it here too for those that don't follow that group.

source: http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/consumer_alert_100605.htm

Stop FDA Censorship
Consumers Need to Know The Facts

The United States is facing a worsening health care crisis as aging
baby boomers financially exhaust the nation's medical systems.

[The answer to this is to simply get government completely out of the health
care business. Then people will learn how to look after their own individual
needs and start to be more concerned about their health so that it is not so
costly to them. --Paul]

[A similar easy-to-see parallel to this is the qulaity of care given rental
property by renters vs. owned property by the actual owners. It is the rare
renter of a house who cares for it, and the land on which it is situated, with
the same high level of care that s/he would if s/he actually owned it. A renter
is unlikely to do preventative maintenance while an owner is far more likely to
do so. S/he has an investment in the property, either for hir own use or for
income purposes. **Kitty]


The FDA is empowered to regulate many aspects of our healthcare, yet
this Federal agency continues to behave in a manner that promotes
illness and premature death.

[The answer is simply to remove all the FDA's regulatory (read *enforcement*)
power and make them at most a testing, analysis and advisory agency. --Paul]


An overwhelming amount of published scientific data supports the
disease-prevention benefits of eating a healthier diet, yet the FDA
still restricts what Americans are allowed to read on the labels of
foods, beverages and dietary supplements.

[That is because those at the FDA demand a different type and level of evidence,
and because they have the power of the legal use of force to make others obey
their demands. --Paul]


We Can Change The Law

A bill has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives
that would give consumers access to truthful, non-misleading health
information. The name of this bill is "Consumers' Access to Health
Information Act" and is numbered H.R. 2352.

The purpose of this bill is to amend the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
to ensure that:

1. Accurate health claims are not suppressed;
2. Consumers are given truthful and full information about the
disease curative, mitigation, treatment, and prevention effects of
foods and dietary supplements;
3. The FDA honors the intent of the Congress to not censor accurate
health claims.

[Let me say right off that the FDA would argue (actually quite reasonably) that
they are doing all this right now and always have been. This is reasonable
because all these "purposes" are based on the *judgment of the strength of
evidence*, and there is no *objective process* to decide where the line for
strong enough to be "non-misleading", "accurate", "truthful", "full
information", "curative", "mitigatory", "treatment" and/or "preventive" should
be drawn. Any such process is inherrently subjective to each individual!

That is why this bill, as is all legislation, is misdirected and a pointless
waste of time. So long as any agency is allowed to make evaluations and to use
the coercive power of government to enforce those evaluations, no legislative
wording will be able to stop them from making whatever judgments they want. All
judgments are based on evaluation of the evidence regarding efficacy and
potential harm, and then weighing that with costs and personal need relative to
all other options and relative to how much one values one's life and how quickly
one is dying. Although any reasonable person will seek guidance from others and
gain as much information as possible before making a decision, the *only* person
who can do such ultimate estimation based on the weighing of evidence, the cost
and hir personal need is the individual for hirself, since no one else knows the
details of hir personal heirarchy of values and no one else can either take or
bear the responsiblity of such a decision. --Paul]


This is one of the most critical pieces of legislation to ever come
before Congress. Passage of the Consumers' Access to Health
Information Act (H.R. 2352) would enable the American public to learn
how to prevent many of the degenerative diseases of aging.

[Nonsense! The passage of legislation is not something that is either needed or
effective in making people learn. --Paul]


The healthcare crisis that is threatening to bankrupt Medicare,
corporations, and aging individuals might be averted.

[All the information is already available to prevent this and has been for
years. Passing a bill in Congress is not going to suddenly make people read,
analyze, think and decide for themselves. --Paul]


You can conveniently email you own Representative and encourage them
to support H.R. 2352 (Consumers' Access to Health Information Act) by
clicking here.

[I don't think it will do much good, but since it also won't do much overall
harm, I have no objection to this action. --Paul]


Please don't settle for scientific censorship. Stand up for your
First Amendment rights by sending a prepared email to your
Representative that states you want to see H.R. 2352 enacted into
law.

[Forget *scientific* censorship, don't allow *any* censorship of information.
Information cannot do any harm to anyone. The only harm that can be done is by
individuals making incorrect usage of information - but the responsibility for
that lies squarely with them. --Paul]


take action now
-----------------------

Although I do not usually support any government actions I think this
is a case in which doing so would be beneficial for my lifetime happiness.

[It's a toss-up. In the short-run it might help a little, but in the long run
it, like all government actions and the support of them, can only be harmful.
--Paul]