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Discuss The Pros And Cons Of Regulating Dietary Supplements

1305 Words6 Pages

In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act made sure that the only power the FDA had was the pull a product off the shelf because of false labeling. In this paper, I will discuss the pros and cons of regulating dietary supplements. First of all, ingredients that are used in a drug must be printed on the bottle since that’s what it’s classified as. However, the print is small and nobody really knows what the small print means. The companies that distribute these supplement know that and seem to be out to make the customer fall for their actions. “The Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general found that 20 percent of the 127 weight-loss and immune-boosting supplements investigators purchased online and in retail stores across the country carried labels that made illegal claims to cure or treat disease. It's a scathing indictment of a booming $20 billion industry. Some products said they could cure or prevent diabetes or cancer or help people with HIV or AIDS, which is strictly prohibited …show more content…

However, some of these pills make others less effective or not effective at all. Personally, I am currently taking a pill that could cancel out my birth control, making me more susceptible to pregnancy. Supplements are allowed to be marketed without evidence that they are safe or of course, effective. This is where ethics comes in. Some companies just want to sell what they put out there and make money, not caring about the welfare of their consumers so they lie. Manufacturers are meant to explain how a product works and the ingredients that went into it. Dietary supplement have to a disclaimer that says “fails to meet the quality (including tablet or capsule disintegration), purity, or compositional specifications, based on validated assay or other appropriate methods, that the supplement is represented to meet” (DIETARY SUPPLEMENT HEALTH AND EDUCATION ACT OF 1994 PUBLIC LAW 103-417 103RD

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