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October 10, 2007 As reported in yesterday's Globe and Mail, "The Canadian Pediatric Society...recently said pregnant women should consider taking 10 times more vitamin D than the government recommends. The Canadian Cancer Society… is advocating a dosage for all adults that is five times higher than the government guideline." The problem is that Health Canada won't raise its recommended dosage because the department "has a policy of harmonizing Canadian nutrition standards with those in the United States and… said it is committed to a joint review process with the Americans on vitamin D supplement levels." The joint review would cost an estimated $1-million, which probably has something to do with why Health Canada is shy about contacting the Washington-based Food and Nutrition Board to get it going. Such are the costs -- financially and to our health -- of regulatory harmonization. Harmonizing food and drug rules predates NAFTA but the goal has picked up momentum since 9/11. In Too Close for Comfort (page 164), Maude Barlow writes, "In February 2004, Mark B. McClellan, then commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration; Diane Gorman, assistant deputy minister of the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada; and Ernesto Enriquez Rubio, commissioner of the Federal Commission for the Protection from Sanitary Risks of Mexico, signed a 'Trilateral Cooperation Charter' (TCC). Its mission is to 'enhance communication...develop partnerships...and harmonize positions' among the countries in the areas of drugs, biologics, medical devices, food safety, and nutrition." Barlow also writes that, "On June 29, 2005, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh announced a memorandum of understanding between Health Canada and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to 'establish mechanisms' to collaborate on the setting of standards on consumer goods, including risk assessment and management, enforcement and compliance activities, laboratory testing, recalls, regulatory development, emergency management, and public health and safety information." So now the same Food and Agriculture Regulatory Systems SPP Working Group that decided that Canada should increase the amount of pesticides it allows on hundreds of fruits and vegetables to match U.S. standards is taking the sun out of our lives. Regulatory harmonization means more pesticides and less vitamin D. Go figure. The U.S.-based government watchdog organization Judicial Watch posted a copy of the Food and Agriculture working group's agenda from 2005 on its website. You can read it by clicking here. |
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