CONSTITUENTS often ask me about the latest health fad, so a news item on the subject in this magazine (10 April, p 6) encouraged me to quiz health ministers on government guidelines on dietary supplements.
According to public health minister Melanie Johnson, in the UK at present most herbal medicines are unlicensed and subject to few specific safety or quality requirements. However, in 2002 the European Union adopted a directive on food supplements setting up lists of permitted vitamins and minerals and their chemical sources that can be used in food supplements. The EU鈥檚 scientific committee on food assessed the safety and suitability of various substances for inclusion on the lists. Regulations implementing the directive will come into force in the UK on 1 August 2005, the minister said.
Johnson added that the directive also allows maximum levels to be set in future for vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The UK Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals reviewed the scientific evidence on the safety of vitamins and minerals in 2003 and reported that some food supplements could have harmful effects if taken at too high a dose.
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I sense that devotees of food supplements could be far from happy with this.
INTERNATIONAL trade in ivory was outlawed in 1989, but two years ago the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) provisionally approved the sale of ivory from elephants that die naturally. But loopholes mean illegal trading is on the increase; fingers are even being pointed at the UK as a hub for much of the trade (快猫短视频, 20 March, p 10). Environment minister Elliot Morley is the UK鈥檚 spokesman on CITES, so I asked him if the convention had made any decisions on acceptable levels of ivory trade when signatories met in Geneva in March.
Morley replied that some representatives had raised concerns about the unregulated internal market in ivory in some African countries. The CITES secretariat called for all such trade to be suspended, but left the final decision to the CITES meeting in Bangkok in October.
He added that there is a firm line to be drawn between one-off sales of ivory held by governments for the benefit of a country鈥檚 wildlife conservation programmes and a general return to commercial trade. The UK government is clear that illegal trade in ivory should not be permitted, the minister said.
I am shocked that some African states are choosing to clear their ivory stocks and confiscated tusks by burning them. It is surely better that they are used to finance secure habitats for elephants.
