acheron
TRIBE Member
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-ephedra31.html
December 31, 2003
BY LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is banning the sale of ephedra early next year, and urged consumers Tuesday to stop using the herbal stimulant that has been linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
It was the government's first ban on a dietary supplement, one that comes eight years after the Food and Drug Administration began receiving reports that ephedra could be dangerous.
''The time to stop taking these products is now,'' Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.
Ephedra once was popular for weight loss and bodybuilding.
But it can cause life-threatening side effects even in seemingly healthy people who use the recommended doses, because the amphetamine-like stimulant speeds the heart rate and constricts blood vessels.
The ban isn't immediate because federal rules require paperwork steps that mean the earliest it could take effect would be March. But the FDA wrote 62 current and former makers and sellers on Tuesday that, ''we intend to shut you down,'' said Commissioner Mark McClellan.
Critics called the ephedra ban long overdue.
Sales already have plummeted because of publicity about the herb's dangers, which peaked after the ephedra-related death of baseball pitcher Steve Bechler.
''It's a dead product, and unfortunately it has become a dead product over the backs of a lot of dead people when the FDA could have acted before,'' said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
The FDA said it couldn't act any sooner because of a law that lets dietary supplements sell over the counter without any requirements that they prove to be safe first. To curb sales, FDA must prove a clear danger to public health.
December 31, 2003
BY LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is banning the sale of ephedra early next year, and urged consumers Tuesday to stop using the herbal stimulant that has been linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
It was the government's first ban on a dietary supplement, one that comes eight years after the Food and Drug Administration began receiving reports that ephedra could be dangerous.
''The time to stop taking these products is now,'' Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.
Ephedra once was popular for weight loss and bodybuilding.
But it can cause life-threatening side effects even in seemingly healthy people who use the recommended doses, because the amphetamine-like stimulant speeds the heart rate and constricts blood vessels.
The ban isn't immediate because federal rules require paperwork steps that mean the earliest it could take effect would be March. But the FDA wrote 62 current and former makers and sellers on Tuesday that, ''we intend to shut you down,'' said Commissioner Mark McClellan.
Critics called the ephedra ban long overdue.
Sales already have plummeted because of publicity about the herb's dangers, which peaked after the ephedra-related death of baseball pitcher Steve Bechler.
''It's a dead product, and unfortunately it has become a dead product over the backs of a lot of dead people when the FDA could have acted before,'' said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
The FDA said it couldn't act any sooner because of a law that lets dietary supplements sell over the counter without any requirements that they prove to be safe first. To curb sales, FDA must prove a clear danger to public health.
