CODEX - THE SICKNESS INDU$TRY's LAST STAND...
A Guest Edtorial by Australian Eve Hillary from
http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/codex-sickness.htm
If you think that "Codex Alimentarius" is no threat to health care than
you haven't read Eve Hillary's latest article. Eve lays it all
out
"down under" with pages of detailed references about the "Codex"
problem - worldwide.
There is no doubt in my mind that "Codex" is just the latest attempt by
Big Pharma to control health care worldwide. Take the time to
read
Eve's latest lengthy piece on the issue. It's full of interesting
ideas that will stir you up.
CODEX – THE SICKNESS INDU$TRY’s LAST STAND...
A Guest Article By
Australian Health Activist Eve
Hillary
About
Eve Hillary:
Eve Hillary is a
Health Freedom Advocate based in Sydney. She a medical analyst,
public
speaker and writer on issues pertaining to the health care industry and
environmental health. She is the author of Children of a
Toxic
Harvest: An Environmental Autobiography, and numerous articles relating
to health issues. Her most recent book is Health Betrayal; Staying away
from the Sickness Industry. Eve has spent
25 years in health care where she has observed the medical industry at
first hand from the inside. evehillary@smartchat.net.au or
eve@evehillary.org
Special
Release April 1, 2005 Sydney ~ Revised April 23, 2005
-
Published here May 31st, 2005
Part One
Preamble
What is
CODEX? (34) In short it is an annual World Health Organisation
(WHO)
sponsored gathering of delegates in Europe, many of them trans-national
pharmaceutical corporations who are primarily focused on increasing
their market share, by pushing their desired and arbitrary regulatory
“standards” into a global standard and forcing it onto the smaller
local supplement industry, all in the name of “international
regulatory excellence”. The Codex Committee is also bound by the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) treaties.
The WTO
is a global commercial police that ensures countries are required to
purchase from trans-national corporations in favour of their own
locally produced goods, in the name of “lowering trade barriers”.
This WHO/WTO joint effort called CODEX is in the process of
wiping out
local supplement companies and natural health care practices, to bring
in more drug based medicine, in what is euphemistically known as “creating
a level playing field”, while primarily giving the public a
misleading impression that someone in the World Health Organisation
(WTO) is looking after its health and safety.
CODEX
recommendations are then adopted by regulators such as the Australian
TGA or the US FDA by various direct or indirect means that end up as
Acts and amendments that are passed into law by Parliaments or
Congress, usually without public debate.
In 2002
I unveiled Codex to a Brisbane, Australia audience of 300 people. Only
3 knew anything about it - the same three I’d spoken with before the
lecture. I then wrote a chapter on CODEX in my book “Health
Betrayal”. Primary data about CODEX is not easy to find. (34)
And
there remains deliberate misinformation emanating from government
sources with close ties to trans-national corporations. Meanwhile, the
Australian regulator, the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) is
deeply involved in the corporate agenda as this article will
track.
The
Australian Health Minister, Mr. Abbott, has recently called a Sydney
talkback radio program to “reassure” the presenter and
listening audience that CODEX is not an issue in Australia. At the same
time there has been no effort on the part of the government to publicly
reveal the extraordinary events that have delivered Australia into
corporate governance in health care. This includes the very real
possibility that many cheap and effective natural remedies may no
longer be available to the public after July 1 when drastic changes
that have never been openly debated, are set to be implemented by
Parliament.
It is my intention to reveal the fact
that
trans-national pharmaceutical corporations have already assumed the
role of government at least where health care is concerned. I
intend
to highlight what steps have already been taken by corporate interests
to move Australia and New Zealand toward CODEX and toward international
corporate governance in the Asia Pacific region. This being true,
it
would alter the basic premise and agreement which Australian governance
was founded upon – Democracy. This agreement cannot be altered
except
with the informed consent of the majority and only after public debate
and referendum. It is my educated guess that most Australians
want
democracy for themselves and that they would want to preserve it for
future generations. It is my guess that Australians do not want to be
governed by trans-national corporations. It is my intention to
allow
these issues to be debated, understood and corrected by the electors,
the only legitimate proprietors of government at this time.
Short
History – Key Data
When
debating regulatory matters I believe it is essential to bear in mind
that the supplement industry and the drug industry are totally
different industries. The natural supplement industry and its
related
discipline, natural health care is thousands of years old with a proven
tradition. For example, Nostradamus used compressed rose petal
pastilles, rich in vitamin C to treat his patients suffering from
bubonic plague. Many of his patients survived the dreaded disease, and
Nostradamus himself, who took the pastilles never succumbed to the
illness.
The
modern supplement industry has been traditionally locally owned
by
private or family companies and evolved around its own proven quality
and safety standards. Traditionally using cheap and naturally sourced
raw ingredients, the supplement industry has an enviable product safety
record. In addition an entire branch of natural and
nutritional
medicine has developed over the centuries with a long tradition of
safety and a large body of scientific evidence in support of its
efficacy. A little known fact is that literally thousands of
peer-reviewed studies exist to support the success of natural and
nutritional approaches to medicine. (36,37,38,39,40) There exist many
conditions that can only be significantly remedied by nutritional
medicine.
The
pharmaceutical industry as we know it, on the other hand, only started
in earnest about 60 years ago. Many drugs have been so recently
synthesised that their side effects will not be known for some years to
come. Pharmaceutical corporations rely on patented artificial
chemical
drugs to generate most of their profits. Aggressive drug company
marketing and image management has created the impression that drugs
are essential to health, when in fact deaths from adverse drug
reactions make up the fourth highest cause of death in the US.
Still
stinging from the market share lost through consumers opting for
natural supplements, the trans-national pharmaceutical corporations
have influenced the regulators to regulate supplements as drugs when in
fact vitamins and minerals are not drugs but essential to all humans on
a daily basis.
The
difference between drugs and nutrients is that they are fundamentally
opposites. There are many conditions caused when sufficient
nutrients
are not supplied to the body each day, but there is no such thing as a
drug deficiency.
Author’s
Note
I’m a
health writer. I track the sickness industry. I watch while
powerful
vested interests infiltrate governments of sovereign nations. Lately
I’d been busy with some other issues and nearly missed a hat trick that
was being performed by Australian politicians that would remove freedom
of choice from the community. I discovered it just in time when
an
article came across my desk entitled “The Codex threat to Australia –
fact or fiction?” written by a chap who sourced his information from a
few government websites. He opined that the Codex issue was
merely
hype and nonsense and nothing much for Aussies or anybody else in the
world to worry about. His article was published by the Australian
Traditional Medicine Society, an organisation that is supposed to
represent complementary health practitioners and provide them with
clear information about exactly WHO’s in charge of making decisions
about supplements. Frankly, I expected such a hose-down article as this
to more likely appear in a pharmaceutical company trade magazine or as
a press release from the TGA. But I assumed the drug giants have
their
own spin doctors, legions of them. And they are quite content to have
useful gophers disseminate their whitewash to the rest of us.
Later I
discovered the article’s author regularly sat on a TGA committee called
the Interim Advertising Council, which has, along with several
pharmaceutical front organisations such as the Medicines Australia and
the Self-Medication Industry set up an official advertising
agency
that so blatantly serves drug company corporate interests that even the
AMA objects to it on the grounds that “the process is occurring against
a backdrop of enormous pressure…from pharmaceutical companies and
others to open up to direct consumer advertising”. (24, 20)
I must
however give thanks to the article in question, and to its author,
Raymond Khoury, for it led me to cast my attention back to Codex and
focus on a currently unfolding disaster in the Pacific region that is
only avoidable if the Electors get a grip on the reins very soon.
If you
believe, as I do, that in time the stench of sleaze, bribery, greed and
dishonesty will reach the nose of the ethical majority to be dealt with
accordingly, then you might agree that the sickness industry is about
to collapse in on itself by the sheer weight of its own corruption.
This is a time when the drug industry and our “regulators” are
committing some stupid and desperate acts against human rights.
And
our politicians don’t look good passing Parliamentary bills, acts and
amendments in the dead of night that arose through improper
influences. Remember their names, for it is they who are
accountable
for their ethics. And it is we who are accountable for the kind
of
society we have allowed corporations to create in our name.
Getting
Health Care into Perspective – Understanding CODEX
It’s
official. US research shows that inappropriate and dangerous medical
treatments and adverse drug reactions are now the number one cause of
death (4). To some it was no surprise. It seemed an
inevitable
outcome from the 1980’s when health care was taken over by “health
care” corporations and the pharmaceutical industry. Then the bottom
line in health care became profit instead of sending the patient home
well and drug free, if possible. (13)
There
are still no Parliamentary enquiries into the deaths of 18,000
Australians each year, killed by inappropriate doctoring and prescribed
pharmaceutical drugs that are licensed by the TGA (the Australian
regulator). The cause of these avoidable deaths has been known by the
government for over ten years when Dr. Runciman made it known in a
report he prepared to the government in 1995. And yet nothing has
been
done about it. This makes these unnecessary deaths a deliberate act on
the part of the perpetrators, the medical and pharmaceutical
corporations and the Australian government. This act is the equivalent
of deliberately exterminating all living beings from an entire large
sized Australian country town each year. (1,2,3). This
killing for
profit has knowingly continued for the past 10 years.
In
addition to the death toll, 50,000 Australians are maimed and disabled,
not by their diseases, but by the “health care system” which includes;
bad doctoring and serious or permanent damage from drugs that were
licensed by the TGA. Yet there are no outraged politicians giving
undertakings on the Senate steps to find the culprits, to stop the
criminality of it. This appears astonishing, since 187 Australians are
unnecessarily killed and maimed each day – that’s seven Australians
killed or maimed per hour by conventional health care - more
Australians than were ever killed in all the wars. By the time
you
have read this another Australian will die or be disabled by
inappropriate medical treatment or an adverse reaction from a drug that
was licensed and approved by the TGA. No memorials are erected to
these victims. (1,2,3)
Where
is Mainstream Media?
A few
years ago the media conducted a feeding frenzy about an unfortunate
person who died allegedly of an allergic reaction to royal jelly, a
highly nutritious food that worker bees feed to the hive queen bee.
(Unfortunately many more fatal allergic reactions occur annually than
ever before, to both synthetic and to natural substances, due to the
fact that general immunological health is declining through
environmental degradation.) The person had ingested both
the jelly
and a meat sausage before the allergic reaction occurred, one that
could equally have been caused by the preservative in the
sausage.
However, the TGA launched a lengthy investigation into the royal jelly,
and required Royal Jelly to carry a health warning on the label. The
sausage, of course was not investigated, nor allocated a health hazard
label, one that the fatty, preserved product could arguably deserve,
since the nitrite preservatives in sausages are responsible for many
serious or fatal allergic reactions.
To
salvage any remaining integrity the media would need to start
presenting honest reports about the serious damage done to victims of
the pharmaceutical and conventional health care corporations.
Instead
it runs the occasional unfounded vitamin scare about the purported
dangers of vitamin C or Echinacea.
WHO
is the TGA?
The TGA
(therapeutic goods administration) is the Australian “regulator”
of drugs, chemicals, genetically modified products, medical devices and
now nutritional supplements and herbs which it calls “complementary
medicines”. The TGA is a statutory body, created by an act of
Parliament over 20 years ago on behalf of the Australian community. Its
motto is “to ensure the safety of all Australians”.
Since
its inception as “watchdog”, the TGA has licensed and allowed
genetically modified foods into the country which opinion polls showed
the overwhelming majority of Australians did not want.
Despite
hundreds of letters from concerned citizens and chemically injured
persons, the TGA has continued to allow chemicals onto the market which
are shown to have toxic effects on humans even when used as directed.
In
addition the TGA has licensed pharmaceutical drugs such as Zyban, Vioxx
and mercury laden vaccines among others, despite available data about
the potentially serious and fatal effects these drugs have on humans.
The TGA still allows the drugs that cause a large proportion of the
18,000 deaths and 50,000 serious injuries through adverse drug
reactions while on the other hand it has compiled a large data base on
its regulation of natural substances including vitamins, minerals, and
even honey and olive oil, listing them as medicines.
The TGA
has taken over the regulation of nutrients which have
traditionally
been produced by a separate and unique industry and are not part of the
pharmaceutical industry because nutrients are not drugs, they are
essential to all humans. Most health conscious persons now take
supplements because it is known that food produced by modern
agriculture is depleted in essential nutrients. TGA now regulates
nutrients as drugs requiring evidence and clinical trials. There is no
point to conducting “clinical trials” to determine whether
persons need calcium or any other essential nutrient since it has been
a long established fact that humans need all essential nutrients daily.
The sole advantage in regarding nutrients as drugs is that the
drug
industry then stands to have exclusive control of all supplement
manufacturing, sales and distribution.
The TGA maintains close ties to the World
Health Organisation (WHO) and to the Codex Commission. Domestically, it
convenes various committees upon which sit well known representatives
of pharmaceutical interests and pharmaceutical front organisations.
(19,20,21) TGA regularly consults with and places on its
committees
representatives of pharmaceutical and food companies such as Proctor
and Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Eli Lily, Glaxo,
Pfizer, Wyeth and many other multination drug corporations.
Without
Australians’ knowledge or consent, the TGA routinely places
corporations in positions of power when making decisions about
Australian’s health. (23) It could be argued that any
decision
arising from this improper relationship could well be a legal nullity.
TGA
Targets Pan
Globally
there was one privately owned large supplier of ingredients for the
manufacture of nutritional supplements that was big enough to be in
direct competition with trans-national pharmaceutical corporations. The
supply chain of nutritionals and drugs has been fiercely coveted by the
multi-national pharmaceutical corporations such as Roche, Merck and
Wyeth, to name just a few. But Sydney based Pan Pharmaceuticals
was a
privately owned company, and a relatively big player that supplied most
of Australia and a portion of the world market with ingredients for the
formulation of nutritional supplements and a large variety of natural
supplement products.
In
April 2003 the TGA raided Pan Pharmaceuticals, giving the grounds that
the company’s travel sickness product had included a faulty batch. The
company had already voluntarily recalled it and was addressing the
problem as was customary in the industry. However, TGA handled
Pan far
differently from the way it had dealt with any multi-national drug
company. The regulator immediately forced Pan to shut
down and
within a few days recalled over 1600 natural supplement products with
which nothing was found amiss on the routine testing that had occurred
just previously. (5) The regulator created chaos among consumers and
retailers alike as the TGA recall escalated into the largest recall of
natural products in history, all the more extraordinary since there had
been no complaints about the company’s supplements prior to the recall.
Moreover,
the vitamin and mineral supplements, which had caused no known ill
effects, were classed by the TGA as necessitating a class 1 recall,
meaning the regulator claimed the natural products would “cause death
or permanent injury”. The TGA however, provided no evidence that
any
vitamin or mineral, and in particular Pan’s had ever caused death or
disability. This TGA mischief created wide spread anxiety about
nutritional supplements in the public mind. A feat that would
have
cost the Pharmaceutical industry public relations machine millions of
dollars, was thus done overnight by the TGA “regulator”.
The
ruse terrified scores of little old ladies who thought their calcium
tablet would kill them and demanded a refund from their health food
store, but it failed to impress those who already knew about the war on
alternative and complementary health. And it particularly aroused
suspicion in those who relied on logical data to come to their
conclusions.
What
this deception did, however, was to reveal the TGA double standard in
favour of drugs from drug giants and against natural products that were
produced by Australian companies who were big enough to cut into
multinational drug company market shares. Meanwhile, any evidence
contained in the recalled vitamins and minerals, disappeared without a
bubble when the regulator destroyed a vast mountain of natural
supplements at a secret location.
TGA
bias was particularly evident by the manner in which the regulator
conducted future recalls. Interestingly, the regulator
conducted a
class 2 recall on VIOXX; a drug manufactured by drug giant Merck - a
drug which did cause 55,000 confirmed deaths and over 180,000
confirmed injuries to Americans alone. A Class 2 recall meant the TGA
believed the “defects could cause illness…but are not class one”
That meant that the regulator claimed the drug could not
kill or
disable anyone, which was an obvious and self evident falsehood that
put the community at risk. (6).
If
Pan
was shut down after nobody complained about its supplement line or
suffered a single problem, then it would be reasonable for
trans-national Merk to be shut down for selling a drug that killed tens
of thousands of Americans alone. This has not been the case and the TGA
has not even conducted an investigation into how many Australians or
New Zealanders might have been killed by the Drug Vioxx to which it
issued a licence.
Within
days of the raid the hapless Pan company and its founder were embroiled
in official red tape and TGA forced Pan to close its doors permanently.
Shortly after the TGA raid, someone called in KPMG, the
liquidator, so
fast, that the owner, Jim Selim was removed from his own company with
the velocity of a speeding bullet and the manufacturing plant and
company was sold lock stock and barrel, in only six months for a
pittance, (a likely world record for a liquidator). The Pan
company
that Mr. Selim had built up over 20 years, worth over 500 million
dollars was sold for only 20 million within a few months of the TGA
raid. (10) Interestingly, KPMG is a multinational power broker
based
in Switzerland that deals in accounting, mergers, liquidation and
interestingly, also in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. KPMG’s specialty
however, is offering financial advice and other consultant “services”
to the pharmaceutical industry. ( 8 ).
Over
the ensuing 2 years the TGA has kept Mr. Selim busy in a gruelling
round of court battles while the liquidator, KPMG continued to pick the
carcass clean. Recently, KPMG filed a statement of claim against Mr.
Selim for the amount of 300 million over the collapse of Pan brought
about by the TGA. (10)
Since
the Pan debacle, the beleaguered but apparently spirited former owner
of Pan intended to start another business in Viet Nam as a manufacturer
of health products there but TGA and now ASIC (the Australian company
watchdog) is attempting to stop his manufacturing licence in Viet Nam,
alleging irregularities in the paperwork. Interestingly, most of
the
big pharmaceutical companies such as
Novartis,
Pfizer
and GlaxoSmithKline have now set up offices in Vietnam. (9,
10).
TGA on Post Pan Rampage
After the TGA disposed of
Pan, it systematically ran through other small Australian vitamin and
supplement manufacturers like a dose of Epsom salts in a frenzy of “inspections”
and “regulatory activities”.
Small
Australian-owned supplement manufacturers allege TGA used a variety of
intimidatory methods against them including the halting of
manufacturing operations and near impossible requirements that mainly
cost over $500,000 to implement. NZ Health Trust reports “recent
reports out of Australia…include comments such as compliance costs
having increased by 800% for one firm, another has had to spend an
extra $2 million in compliance costs, another still faces a $1.86
million bill to upgrade their computer systems as now required.”
TGA officials
allegedly demanded proprietors sign confidentiality agreements and
other agreements demanding that the proprietor will not hold TGA liable
for the loss of their business after such “regulating activities”.
(11) Australian supplement companies remain silent after TGA’s “inspections”.
Many are bound by agreements and none wanted their names revealed for
fear of a fresh round of “TGA regulatory activities”.
Although a few are now considering legal action regardless, an
enquiry
into TGA corruption should get these witnesses testifying with
considerable help from a subpoena.
The TGA had
routinely inspected the Australian supplement industry in the 2 years
before it sent Pan to the wall, and did not suspend a single
manufacturer’s license. But after Pan, dozens of manufacturers were
driven out of business and over 12 Australian supplement companies “voluntarily”
turned in their manufacturing licenses and went to the wall after TGA
scoured through their business again. (All the manufacturers had
already passed previous years’ rigorous TGA inspections.) (18,
11)
Those who could afford it just paid the money and did what was required
of them to stay in business for the time being. Other
manufacturers
sold out for fire sale prices. Following this obvious witch hunt, many
natural product lines remain out of stock in Australia and many
nutritional supplements have been permanently discontinued as have the
smaller Australian companies who made them.
TGA and Drug
Corporations Set up Committee
In May 2003, only a
month after TGA gutted Pan, the regulator issued a public statement
alleging that “concerns” had been raised about the quality of
complementary medicines (supplements) and indeed even the competency of
complementary practitioners (naturopaths). All this after: 1. the
defective travel sickness pill was a drug and not a supplement and had
been removed. 2. the company had been closed, and dismantled, 3.
none
of the 1600 Pan dietary supplements were found to have caused any
problems, and 4. no naturopath or alternative practitioner had killed
or harmed anyone with supplements (In the time it takes to read this
far another 4 Australians have been killed or seriously injured by
dangerous medical procedures or pharmaceutical drugs licensed by the
TGA.)
Ignoring all the
evidence to the contrary, the TGA stated on its website; “In May
2003, to reassure the public and maintain confidence in Australia's
reputation as a supplier of high quality and safe medicines, the
Australian Government established the Expert Committee on Complementary
Medicines in the Health System (the ‘Expert Committee’)”
The TGA “expert”
committee designated to investigate supplements on behalf of the
Australian public, includes pharmaceutically orientated individuals and
several pharmaceutical front organsiations such as the Self Medication
Industry (ASMI) which represents Bayer, Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo, Schering
and Wyeth among other trans-national pharmaceutical corporations. (12)
Brazenly, the expert committee also includes the Vice President
of
manufacturing operations in the Asia Pacific Region of Wyeth, a
multinational that markets drugs, vaccines and also nutrient
supplements including raw ingredients to supplements. (12)
Incredibly, Wyeth, was in direct competition to the products and
raw
ingredients that Pan supplied in the Asia Pacific region, just before
TGA raided Pan. Wyeth has a huge Asia Pacific base of operation
and is
aggressively expanding its corporate territory. (16)
Interestingly,
Wyeth’s profits plunged a few months before the TGA shut down Pan and
the drug giant was only saved a substantial loss that quarter by its
small but profitable range of vitamin products. (17,14,
15).
The “expert”
committee, stacked with corporate representatives has been working on
creating more TGA legislation governing the control and regulations of
supplements. In a stunning display of corporate governance over
Australians, it has recently released fifty more expert recommendations
that have resulted in 107 pages of proposed amendments to the TGA Act
which would increase the powers of the TGA to “regulate” even
more stringently. This would give TGA police powers and the power
to
impose criminal charges and penalties on Australian supplement
manufacturers. All this when there has never been a problem with
supplements.
Since late 2004, the
TGA Amendment Bill of 2005 has been floated around the Australian
Parliament. This Bill proposes stiff criminal charges including a
half
a million dollar fine against anyone who does not report even a
purported mild adverse reaction to a natural remedy or a supplement.
Since deaths from supplements are virtually unheard of, it is not
difficult to imagine the official abuses, and persecutions against
natural practitioners and products inherent in such legislation, when
the pharmaceutical industry death tolls remain unchecked. The only
beneficiaries of the proposed Bill appear to be the Pharmaceutical
corporations, probably a broad indication of the identity of its
originators. This Bill is intended to bring about the death
of the
Australian owned supplement industry and the takeover of the industry
by Pharmaceutical corporations. It is intended to make it a criminal
offence for anyone to order any supplements from overseas. This
Bill
will further connect Australia to the international regulatory
structures such as CODEX.
The TGA Amendment
Bill of 2005 has been thus far difficult to source because it has been
the apparent intention of government to obscure this document from
public view as it is noted in prominent type on front page the draft
copy; “DRAFT-IN-CONFIDENCE This draft is
supplied in
confidence and should be given appropriate protection. “
Protected from whom? The Australian voters? There has been no
public
debate about giving police powers to the TGA and its pharmaceutical
corporation allies.
Fortunately all
interested Australians can and should now access this proposed bill on
the website listed below at reference nos. 41, 42.
Considering the
improper methods used to originate and pass TGA legislation the
Australian Public should contact their Members of Parliament and demand
they say NO to passing the Therapeutic Goods Amendment Bill of 2005.
Part Two
The Agenda
Without Australians’
knowledge or consent the TGA gave multinational drug companies the
power to expand into and monopolise Australian markets and shake out
the Australian competition. This was done under the guise of
protecting the Australian public health when there is nothing more than
a trade war going on. As in wars of any kind, people die in trade
wars
too, and another Australian has died as you read this because the TGA
and its drug corporation allies are busy suppressing and outlawing
supplements. This enables drug companies to destroy and take over the
supplement market while continuing to profit from many particularly
dangerous drugs that are known to kill and disable humans.
Remarkably, despite
the shakeout, many small fry companies did survive and while the pesky
little Aussie battlers were still taking a breath, the TGA and its
allies swung into action on an urgent agenda. The years 2003 to
2004
were distinguished by unprecedented changes to the structure of the
regulator and the rising dominance of the pharmaceutically based health
care industry. It was the beginning of both merging offshore into
a
massively powerful corporate structure – one that would whistle to the
tune of CODEX.
For that to occur,
the trans-national pharmaceutical companies needed the following: 1.
the world trade organization (WTO) for gaining entry into domestic
markets and leveling the competition. 2. World health
organization
(WHO) Codex committee that sets “standards” for all supplements
to be classed as drugs, which eventually will only be allowed to be
made synthetically by drug companies in line with “international
standards” and not by local manufacturers using inexpensive natural
raw ingredients. 3. A corporately structured regulator out
of the
Elector’s reach who would “regulate” wholly in the interests of
the drug companies. 4. An international treaty (Joint
trans-Tasman
treaty) that would set the foundation for the new international
regulator over Australia and New Zealand (the Trans Tasman joint
Agency) that would be run as a corporation in partnership with
trans-nationals and the TGA and be in the international jurisdiction of
CODEX. 5. An advertising agency that would serve the new
Trans-Tasman
Joint Agency with an advertising code that would “legalize”
advertising multinational’s pharmaceutical drugs directly to consumers,
while at the same time preventing supplements from being advertised.
Part three will
explore how this agenda was carried out.
Part Three
The Treaty
Not Many Knew About
In the months after
the Pan debacle, persons unknown to the Australian electorate drafted
an international treaty between Australia and New Zealand called “Agreement
Between the Government of Australia and the Government of New Zealand
for the Establishment of a Joint Scheme for the Regulation of
Therapeutic products”, (known as the JTA treaty for short).
This treaty was
signed on December 10, 2003 by the health Ministers of both countries
without any public debate and without the consent or consultation with
Australian or New Zealand Electors. The JTA treaty is
intended to
form the “legal” foundation for a massive new regulatory agency.
The JTA treaty is
intended to come into full effect on July 1, 2005 if Australians do not
stop this enactment process by telling their Parliamentary
representatives and the Australian Health Minister that they are not to
pass any enactment legislation pertaining to this treaty. It appears
highly questionable that any legislation that is passed by stealth has
a legitimate force of law in a democracy, and that legislation passed
in this manner is a legal nullity and subject to automatic repeal.
The “Agency”
Not Many Knew About
The JTA treaty is
intended to be the purported “legal” foundation upon which a
monstrously powerful “world class” regulatory “agency” has
been created. Known as the “Agency” or “the
Trans-Tasman
Joint agency” it would do away with the TGA as a statutory entity,
which was at least theoretically accountable to Australian Electors and
it would absorb Medsafe the New Zealand regulator within its tangled
corporate structure. With those two entities nullified the newly
born
mammoth “Agency”, scheduled to come into effect on July
1,
2005 is in fact structurally an off shore corporate business set
to be
run by a chairman of the board, a managing director, two persons with “regulating
experience” and a person with “broad experience in commercial
matters”. This Agency creates a corporate
partnership between
the regulator and the trans-national corporations, which removes it a
further step from the Australian and New Zealand elector and into the
direct jurisdiction of the World Health Authority global regulator
CODEX. (18)
These drastic
changes have been conducted in such a secret manner that even Dr. Robyn
Napier the AMA representative said of it; “the process has largely
occurred without the knowledge of the public.”
HARM-onizing
Kiwi Cousins
Trans-Tasman
harmonizing means to force the Australian “regulatory standards”
onto New Zealand’s supplement industry which up until recently enjoyed
relative prosperity and freedom. “Harmonization”, creates
the
same WTO global standards in each country that are vital to the
interests of trans-national pharmaceutical corporations.
For several years
now it seemed as though Australia had been the designated vitamin
police in the South Pacific region. However, immediately after
Pan was
disposed of, extra plane loads of gray be-suited men from the TGA were
flown across the Tasman at tax payer’s expense to do to the KIWI
(43)
industry what TGA was doing to the Australian supplement industry –
making way for the big drug corporations. Like a squad of
mafia hit
men, the TGA visited upon New Zealand’s supplement industry its new “international
standards in regulatory excellence” and sent their vitamin
businesses to the wall as they “regulated” their way through
Kiwi companies. New Zealanders did not appreciate Australian
HARMonizing efforts, as their many websites and activists
indicate.
Australians, however, were not alerted by the mainstream media.
They
remained largely unaware of the issue while the TGA cooked up yet
another scheme, the trans-Tasman advertising agency.
The
Trans-Tasman Advertising Scheme Not Many Knew About
In mid 2003 the Pan
carcass was barely cold but the TGA remained a hotbed of activity. With
so much big business coming together under the JTA treaty and its “Trans-Tasman
joint Agency”, TGA embarked on a new round of committees that
ensured the panopoly of corporations would have a collective voice in
the media to advertise their goods. New “standards” had
to be
urgently drafted up by the TGA and its pharmaceutical corporation
partners that would come to be known as the “Therapeutic Products
Advertising Code”.
To many Australian
electors it might still seem unusual for its official regulator to
collaborate with media moguls and drug executives and create an
advertising agency, but that is what happened in mid 2003, when one of
the first of a series of many consultation meetings took place with the
“stakeholders”. The trans-Tasman advertising scheme had
among
its attending delegates representatives from Unilever, Johnson
&
Johnson, Pfizer, ReckitBenckiser, Procter and Gamble, and Roche.
(19,
20). Later in the year a similar meeting was convened at the
Sydney
Masonic hall and attended by many delegates including from Eli Lilly,
News Ltd, Boots, various advertising agencies, Faulding, Astra Zeneca,
Baxter, Glaxo, Boehringer Inngelheim, Fairfax, Merk, Novartis,
Schering Plough, Pfizer, Roche and of course who else
but Wyeth.
[Further explanatory note in reference number (21) ]
Dr. Robyn Napier of
the AMA, normally an ultra conservative organization, stated in her
submission to a Parliamentary committee on April 30, 2004; “the
process is occurring against a backdrop of enormous pressure on a
number of fronts, including: (pressure) from pharmaceutical
companies...to open up direct consumer advertising. To down
schedule
medicines to categories where direct consumer advertising is
possible.”
(24) (The AMA was unhappy about this but did not cite patient
safety
concerns such as the new advertising code allowing a confused
grandparent or a vulnerable teenager to purchase prescription drugs
directly from the chemist.)
It
seemed the trans-national pharmaceutical corporations were finally able
to write their own advertising “code of ethics” allowing them
to advertise their prescription drugs over the media. This necessitated
that prescription drugs would be down regulated to become over the
counter drugs. At the same time the code was also
drafted in such a
way as to tighten up regulations on supplement advertising making it
virtually impossible to even mention a positive health effect from a
vitamin in public.
The Front
Organisations
According to an
inside industry source, the media advertising of the therapeutic
products advertising code is managed by pharmaceutical front
organizations such as ASMI, the Australian chapter of the Self
Medication Industry which directly represents the interests of
over a
dozen trans-national pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer,
Merck,
Roche, Glaxo and Wyeth ( as well as a number of smaller
companies).
Some time ago I
noticed that a world wide dietary supplement trade organization called
the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) seemed to pop up regularly
on Codex committees in Europe and it also wafted around the Aussie
TGA. The CRN has chapters in most developed countries and takes a
lead
role in advising governments on issues such as nutritional
supplements. It represents over 100 companies in the “dietary
supplement industry”.
On January 1, 1999
the CRN and another trade organization merged to form the Complementary
Health Council of Australia CHC a “peak body” that claims to “represent
the complementary health care industry in Australia”. Its
executive director was Val Johansen at the time who had headed the TGA
surveillance unit (28). Now a consultant to industry, she
retired
from CHC as from mid 2004. Ms Johansen has been ever present in
most
TGA complementary medicine’s committees and is a member of the Interim
Advertising committee which has determined the Trans-Tasman advertising
schemes’ advertising “code”. In an article published in
the
ACNEM Journal in 1999, she claims that the new reforms the regulator
has brought in means “growth in the supplement industry” and
consumers having access to a wider range of safe complementary health
products, as well as balanced and factual information.”
The CNR’s membership
includes multinational corporations such as: Eastman chemical company,
BASF, Bayer corporation, Monsanto and the ever present Wyeth
pharmaceutical company whose interests are represented by the
organisation. (26.27) It is not known whether these
corporations are
currently members of the CHC.
The CODEX
They Tell You Isn’t Real
The public
constantly sends me information asking me to comment on it. Recently a
flurry of official information updates have landed on my desk from the
Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC). The updates have
been so
widely disseminated to groups and individuals that I thought there must
be someone on round the clock duty. Interestingly I have seen
almost
identical information originating from trade and front organizations in
other countries.
In essence, the
official CHC
“tech update” alleges: CODEX is only about food and not about
supplements. The public is being ill informed about CODEX
and
confused by persons on the internet with “alarmist views” who “do not
fully understand how Codex works”. It says the only Codex
representative
Australia has is from the
fisheries department and he doesn’t make decisions about supplements,
(only fish). And no one in Australia is sitting on any Codex
committee
doing anything to do with vitamins and supplements. Only about
food.
Nothing about supplements…
(29 )
In an extra warning in bold letters the CHC urges all members to
be
cautious of CODEX information from the internet and other forums,
claiming it may be “inaccurate” , “alarmist” and “ill
informed”.
I read
the two page “article” and immediately suffered a bad case of
deja`vue. It sounded so much like Raymond Khoury’s article I could have
sworn it was written by one and the same person and merely recycled -
possibly not surprising since both Ms. Johanson and Mr. Khoury sit on
the same TGA committees.
AUSSIES Deep
in CODEX
For many years now a
few lucky Australians have been sent on a yearly trip to participate in
the WHO CODEX committee in Europe. They are sent by their
government,
which officially denies Codex exists in the context of supplements.
In November 2003 an Australian delegation landed in Bonn,
Germany. The three day CODEX meeting was to
be
hosted by the Federal Republic of Germany.
Inside the stark
German Government building the 25th session was being
convened of the “CODEX COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION AND FOODS FOR SPECIAL
DIETARY USES” by the authoritarian President and Chairman Herr Rolf
Grossklaus. (There was no one from the Aussie fisheries
department
present in the Australian delegation.) The session was well
attended
by 225 delegates and advisors representing 48 member countries,
including Australia and representatives from 29 organisations and
trans-national corporations.
Herr Toepner from
the German Federal Ministry opened the meeting with a short speech
reminding the delegates of the purpose of the Codex committee; “to
protect the health of consumers, to ensure ‘fair trade practices’ and
the committee’s important responsibilities under the WTO”.
(WTO is
the global trade police ensuring trade barriers fall and local
competition is leveled so that global corporations can take over
national markets, in the name of “world class regulatory standards”
and “fair trade practices”.)
Herr Toepner
apparently stressed the same message given to the delegates at
TGA/FSANZ head quarters, for they made an heroic effort to
further the
agenda of supplement restriction at the CODEX meeting. The CODEX
committee Chairman was well pleased with their work. The funereal
looking Herr Grossklaus gratefully accepted the Australian proposal to
apply a “risk” analysis to nutritional supplements. The
committee once again expressed its appreciation to the; “Delegation
of Australia for its work in this important area and agreed that a
‘risk-based approach’ should be followed for the establishment of upper
limits for nutrients,” as stated the 2003 CODEX minutes report.
That meant the Committee was currently working on placing a
restriction on world wide supplement consumers. The
Australian
delegation agreed with the Chairman that the next 2004 Codex “session
should be kept informed of the progress achieved by WHO in order to
facilitate its further work on vitamins and minerals.” (Author’s
translation of meaning of this is in footnote 33)
Moreover, the CODEX
observer from the Council for Responsible Nutrition agreed
wholeheartedly - Probably much to the approval of its members Bayer,
BASF, Monsanto and of course, Wyeth. (The Australian chapter of
the
CRN merged with Ms Johansen’s CHC in 1999)
Among the CODEX
participants that year, there were at least eleven multinational food
and pharmaceutical companies including of course, Nestle and
Roche.
However, three delegations alone were from Wyeth.
The 2003 CODEX must
have been considered such a success that the Australian delegate, Ms.
Janine Lewis, Principal nutritionist, returned with another delegate
the following year, Ms. Jane Allen, Senior nutritionist. Both are
employees of the Food standards
Australia and New Zealand FSANZ, a
TGA related department which has joint committees with the TGA. The two
departments share personnel, resources and curiously similar agendas.
Interestingly, Val Johanson, formerly of CHC states in her bio
that
she; “held positions in the Australian Public Service as head of
food standards at Federal level and she also established the
Therapeutic Goods Administration’s surveillance unit, which she headed
for almost four years. Positions currently held include; member of the
Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee, Chair of the Therapeutic
Goods Advertising Code Council, Head of the International Herbal
Regulatory Task Force of the International Alliance of Dietary
Supplement Associations”.
There is much confusion deliberately generated by the regulator and its
corporate partners to obscure the real agendas. Is Australia’s
participation in CODEX about food or supplements? (therapeutic goods).
The answer is both. This is what a law link had to say about the
legal
interface between foods and supplements after the changes to the
Therapeutic Goods Act that was rammed through after Pan. “Food
can now be a therapeutic good. The TGA is now able to designate food
items as therapeutic goods. Previously, prescribed foods were not
classified as therapeutic goods. Now, where a food product prescribed
under the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code is designated
by TGA as having therapeutic properties, the TGA may declare the
product to be a therapeutic good, and therefore as subject to
regulation under the Act.” (30) That includes vitamins and
supplements which the TGA Act regards as medicines and drugs under the
title of therapeutic goods.
The TGA has this to
say about food being classed as medicine; “products which may fit
within the definition of either a food or a medicine [supplements] are
referred to a joint TGA/FOOD STANDARDS
Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)
committee which recommends whether the goods should be regulated as a
therapeutic good or as food. This means TGA/FSANZ
sends delegates to CODEX to get their orders about supplement
regulations from overseas.
Conclusion
There is no more
point to denying it. Australia is participating in CODEX. But
that is
not all that has occurred. Starting with Pan in 2003 the TGA and
its
trans-national pharmaceutical corporation allies waged a hostile take
over of the Australian supplement industry. Later that year the
Australian government signed a treaty that enabled the TGA and the
pharmaceutical corporations to form what amounts to an offshore
corporation. This would keep the voters at arms’ length and put the
monstrous new “Agency” into the direct international
jurisdiction of the WHO/WTO and CODEX. As a final blow Australian
voters were not even privy to a new TGA amendment bill 2005 that caters
to the needs of the drug corporations. All this because a trade war is
raging. Bad news about drug deaths is getting out. Drug companies
need
to take over supplement market to offset their financial losses.
The
cost of this desperate corporate last stand is Democracy and Health
Freedom. Why consent to that? When you can do something about it.
Australians and New
Zealanders who value their lives, health and freedom can join into Eve
Hillary’s Health Freedom – CODEX campaign and choose an option from the
two pages of easy health freedom suggested initiatives. OR they can
create their own initiatives. Everybody can do something to restore
Health and Freedom for all. See you in the winner’s circle.
References
and Endnotes
(1) “Health horror
revealed” by Samantha Maiden published in the Hobart Mercury 31 July
2001 Wilson RM, Runciman WB, Gibberd RW, et al. The Quality in
Australian Health Care Study. Med J Aust 1995; 163: 458-471.
(2) O’Hara D, Carson NJ. Reporting of adverse events in hospitals
in
Victoria 1994-1995. Med J Aust 1997; 166: 460-463.
(3) National Expert Advisory Group on Safety and Quality in Australian
Health Care. Interim report – Commitment to quality enhancement. July
1998.
(4) This figure is
based on analysis of data from the Nutritional Institute of
America
(NIA)…assessing 2001 data showed that iatrogenic (caused by doctors and
drugs) disease caused 783,936 deaths in contrast with 699,697 deaths
from heart disease and 553,251 from cancer. The NIA report– “Death by
Medicine,” authored by Gary Null, Ph.D., Martin Feldman, MD, Debora
Rasio, MS and Dorothy Smith, Ph.D. – followed a US Agency for
Healthcare Research study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA).
(5)
Pan-WHO
was Behind the Biggest Vitamin Recall in History?
A three Part Feature
Article on who was behind the world’s largest recall. Filed
May 12,
2003 By Eve Hillary
www.evehillary.org
(6)
http://www.tga.gov.au/recalls/2004/vioxx.htm
(7)
http://www.4-men.org/mens-health/vioxx-recall.html
Dr. Graham also told
the Senate Finance Committee that Vioxx may have caused 55,000 deaths
alone, more than the 28,000 projected by the FDA. Graham also indicated
Vioxx may have caused as many as 160,000 heart attacks, strokes and
deaths, combined.
(8)
Internet
website
KPMG Graduate
Recruitment
KPMG. AUDIT. TAX. ADVISORY. bright minds ... company specialising in
sales of foods and pharmaceutical products that has branches through
the country. ...
www.kpmgcareers.co.uk/GraduateRecruitment/
WhatWeExpect/TestYourself/business_challenge.cfm - 34k
(9)
OTC Healthcare in
Vietnam ... Most of the leading international
pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline
have set up representative offices in
Vietnam ...
www.euromonitor.com/OTC_Healthcare_in_Vietnam
- 32k -
(10) “Pan Boss on
Notice” by Jennifer Sexton March 18, 2005 The Australian
Newspaper
(11) This author
interviewed several manufacturers, none of whom have given permission
to use their names for fear of further problems with the TGA
(12)
http://www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/cmreport.htm
(13) “Corporate
Casualties” an article by Eve Hillary
www.evehillary.org
(14)
http://www.biopharmalink.com/companies/1224.htm
Wyeth
(15)
http://www.devicelink.com/expo/nu04/exhibitinfo.html
(16)
http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/opp/cases/wyeth.html
(17)
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=24522-vitamins-buoy-wyeth
(18) From Senate
documents:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Tw0OYiAk9XcJ:www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/clac_ctte/estimates/bud_0304/vol6doha_feb04.pdf++Mr.ross-johnston+vice+president++manufacturing+operations+asia+pacific,+wyeth&hl=en
(19) As stated
in the
JTA treaty page 8.
http://www.jtaproject.com/Downloads/Key%20Documents/TreatyText.pdf
(20)
http://www.tga.health.gov.au/tta/advtt.htm
(21) The stakeholders
meeting was understandably frequented by industry, however, meanwhile
the main Advertising Council Committee at the TGA headquarters was
infiltrated by the drug industry front organization representing the
interests of the multinational industry including ASMI, SMI, the
Researched Medicines Industry, Medicines Australia and. These
organizations represent the interests of dozens of multinational drug
companies. See link
http://www.jtaproject.com/Downloads/Hot%20Topics/IACMeetNov03.pdf
(22)
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/Codex/Codex/Codex-15.html
(23) List of attendees
at the Interim Advertising Council Consultation Meeting Hosted by TGA
on July 1, 2003.
(24) AMA public
submission document to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties inquiry
into the Agreement between Australia and New Zealand for the
establishment of a Joint Scheme for the regulation of therapeutic
products. 30th April, 2004, by Dr.
Robyn Napier,
Representative of the AMA on Trans Tasman interim advertising
council.
(25)
www.codexalimentarius.net/
download/report/251/al03_26e.pdf
(26)
http://proliberty.com/observer/20040111.htm
re CRN
(27)
http://www.crnusa.org/who_omc.html#other
(28)
http://norsearch.scu.edu.au/conferences/nat_safe/conf_speakers.html
(29) Tech
Update from CHC entitled CODEX, the Facts without fiction, signed off
by Alan Crosthwaite, Technical director CHC.
(30)
http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/default.asp?task=read&id=9120&site=GN
(31)
www.nzht.co.nz
New Zealand health Trust
(32)
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/index.htm
Sep Hasslberger
(33) (Author’s
Translation: under that proposed further work on vitamins, a
person
couldn’t make a carrot juice or squeeze an orange juice without being
likely to exceed CODEX guidelines for vitamins. This is done so
anything exceeding the Committee’s low recommended daily intake can be
classed as a drug and sold for a huge profit margin in a synthetic form
rather than to allow cheap naturally derived supplements made by local
manufacturers to be freely available. In Germany where CODEX guidelines
are already in place drug companies now exclusively provide miniscule
doses of vitamin preparations that must be dispensed by a chemist and
are sold for exorbitant prices. Naturopaths and wholistic doctors
have
been prescribing therapeutic doses and even mega doses of vitamins for
over a hundred years with excellent effect. If CODEX
recommendations
are adopted, the speciallty of wholistic health and wholistic medicine
may be lost or disregarded for the sake of drug company profits.)
(34)
Codex refers to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a branch
of the
World Health Organisation which oversees A CODEX COMMITTEE ON
NUTRITION AND FOODS FOR SPECIAL DIETARY USES. This committee meets
annually. Hundreds of delegates attend ranging from
representatives
from 48 member countries to representatives of giant food and
pharmaceutical corporations. Dr. Wong Peng,
Director of The Humanitarian Project
- Health For All,
in Malasia was present at the 2003 Codex committee held in Bonn
Germany. In a summary of that meeting Dr. Peng
writes: “Driven by the
interest of their
multinational corporations, particularly from the pharmaceutical and
food manufacturing industries, the EU put forward suggestions that will
eventually protect the interest of these industries.” This Codex
committee purports to decide whether or not consumers in the world can
have vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients and how much they
can have, and if so, who will provide them.
(35)
When I refer to nutritional supplements and essential nutrients I
refer primarily to all the essential nutrients including minerals,
vitamins, amino acids, and omega oils that are essential to sustaining
a physical human body on a daily basis, without which there would be no
health, healing or life. These are not drugs. They are the
nutrients
everyone must ingest daily to sustain physical health and maintain life
in a physical body. These essentials have been found abundantly in food
in the past.
However,
“modern” agriculture under the influence of multinational chemical
companies has been responsible for the depletion of soils from which
poor quality foods are grown that are depleted of essential
nutrients.
To retain their health many people have resorted to taking nutritional
supplementation of essential nutrients. In many countries these
supplements are now regulated as drugs due to the Codex influence upon
the regulators. Essential nutrients are not drugs. They are
as
essential to life as is oxygen or water. Any excess nutrients are
excreted just like oxygen or water.
Author’s note;
The proposed Codex restriction on nutrients is dangerous and
arguably genocidal. It is the same as if a corporation were to deplete
the earth’s atmosphere of oxygen and then monopolise and regulate
people’s supply and intake of “supplemental” oxygen, calling oxygen a
“drug” that can only be purchased at an exorbitant price from the
corporation that caused the problem in the first place. There is no
difference.
(36)
Hundreds of studies are listed in the following tests by
Dr. M. Wehrbach including: “Textbook of Nutritional
Medicine” by
Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor School of
Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third Line Press 1999
(37)
“Foundations of
Nutritional Medicine” by Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor
School
of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third Line Press
1999
(38)” Nutritional
Influences on Illness” Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical
Professor School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third
Line
Press 1999
(39) )” Nutritional
Influences on Mental Illness” Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD,
assistant
clinical Professor School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles,
CA. Third
Line Press 1999
(40) “Healing Through
Nutrition, a natural approach to Treating 50 common illnesses with diet
and Nutrients” Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor
School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
(41)
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/documents.html
(42)
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/pdf/Therapeutic_Goods_Amendment_Bill_2005.pdf
(43) Kiwi is the
name
of a flightless bird found in New Zealand, also a slang word meaning
New Zealand or New Zealander.
Additional Resources and Information
1.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/mistakes/medicat.htm
2.
www.evehillary.org
3. From
Senate documenthttp://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Tw0OYiAk9XcJ:www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/clac_ctte/estimates/bud_0304/vol6doha_feb04.pdf++Mr.ross-johnston+vice+president++manufacturing+operations+asia+pacific,+wyeth&hl=en
particularly interesting Senate record.
(4)
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/Codex/Codex.html
multiple sources and articles on Codex
(5)
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/Codex/Codex/Codex-15.html
Codex minutes
(6)
WHO/CODEX document
www.codexalimentarius.net/
download/report/251/al03_26e.pdf
(6)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:WG0DccjH9MEJ:www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/627/al28_26e.pdf+codex+alimentarius+commission+pharmceutical+interests&hl=en
Codex Committee Bonn Report
(7)
http://www.iahf.com/20031228a.html
Harmonisation.
(8) NZ
health charter commentary
http://www.healthcharter.org.nz/images/JTA_Treaty_Sub_2_BLUE.doc.
(9)
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/008/j1464e.pdf
Codex meeting minutes proposing guidelines for vitamin and mineral
supplements – Australian participation.
(10)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:k6W8ZTyojK4J:www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/medregs.htm+tga+food+standards&hl=en
Joint TGA/Food standards
(11)
http://www.laleva.cc/supplements/berlin02_hass.html
good account of Berlin Codex meeting.
(12)
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/documents.html
Important documents on proposed new TGA Amendment Bill 2005
(13)
www.nzht.co.nz
New Zealand health Trust CODEX information
(14)
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/index.htm
Sep Hasslberger Codex information site.
(15) Click on for copy
of JTA Treaty:
http://www.jtaproject.com/Downloads/Key%20Documents/TreatyText.pdf
(16) Click on for
government website about Trans Tasman agency;
http://www.jtaproject.com/Default.asp
ECOTERRA Intl.