This week AAPS wrote to members of Congress to ask them to support H.R. 3394 and H.R. 3395. These bills known respectively as the “Freedom of Health Speech Act” and the “Health Freedom Act” seek to limit the Federal Government from over-regulating dietary supplements.
For more information on these two bills read the two letters from AAPS copied below and click here to listen to Jim Turner explain to AAPS’ Michael Ostrolenk why the government’s powers to regulate dietary supplements should not be expanded.
Also, please contact your member of Congress to ask them to support H.R. 3394 and 3395. You can find your representative’s contact information at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml.
AAPS Supports H.R. 3394 “Freedom of Health Speech Act”
Dear Representative:
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a national, non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties founded in 1943, supports H.R. 3394 “Freedom of Health Speech Act”
H.R. 3394 prohibits the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from investigating and acting against an entity for communicating the health benefits of its products unless the FTC presents clear and convincing evidence that an advertisement for a dietary supplement or dietary ingredient is false and that, but for the false advertising content, the consumer would not have made the purchase at the price paid. Additionally, it requires the FTC, if a claimed health benefit is alleged to be false advertising, to additionally establish, based on expert scientific opinion and published peer-reviewed scientific evidence, that the claim is false.
We strongly encourage you to vote for health freedom and informed consumers and co-sponsor H.R. 3394 “Freedom of Health Speech Act”
Sincerely,
Jane M. Orient, M.D. Executive Director
AAPS supports Health Freedom Act – H.R. 3395
Dear Representative,
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a national, non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties founded in 1943, supports H.R. 3395 “The Health Freedom Act”.
Health Freedom Act – Prohibits the federal government from preventing the use of a claim describing any nutrient in a food or dietary supplement as mitigating, treating, or preventing any disease, disease symptom, or health-related condition, unless in a final order following a trial on the merits a federal court finds clear and convincing evidence based on qualified expert opinion and published peer-reviewed scientific research that: (1) the claim is false and misleading in any material respect; and (2) there is no less speech restrictive alternative to claim suppression that can render the claim non-misleading.
Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to deem a food or dietary supplement for which a claim characterizing the relationship of a nutrient to a disease or health-related condition not to be included in the definition of “drug” solely because of such claim.
Revises dietary supplement labeling exemptions to prohibit the government from preventing distribution of a publication concerning the sale of a food or dietary supplement unless: (1) it establishes that a claim contained in the publication names the specific food or supplement sold and represents that the food or supplement mitigates, treats, or prevents a disease; and (2) the claim is proven to be false and misleading in any material respect by final order of a federal court in accordance with this Act.
We strongly encourage you to vote for health freedom and informed consumers and co-sponsor H.R. 3395 “The Health Freedom Act.”
Sincerely,
Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director
