EU law bitter pill to take
OVER 100,000 people nationwide have signed a petition opposing EU plans to place restrictions on vitamins and minerals sold in health food stores.
The petition is part of a campaign to stop the EU Supplements Directive coming into force here in less than two years.
How worried or concerned should we be about the new rules, and what practical effect will they have?
The main effect will be the removal of certain high-dose vitamin pills and supplements from the shelves.
It will mean people who want a particularly concentrated level of a vitamin will have to buy several bottles to get the same dosage as previously available in one tablet.
The EU has insisted it is a safety measure and its experts are now examining the upper limits at which various vitamins and food supplements can be sold.
Speaking at a public meeting in Dublin recently, MEP Kathy Sinnott warned it could lead to a monopoly by the pharmaceutical industry.
President of the Irish Association of Nutritional Therapists, Ann Darcy said there is a need to supplement our diet with high levels of nutrients nowadays.
Depleted nutrient levels in the soil have resulted in our food being seriously nutritionally compromised, she added.
"There has to be something wrong with a system that acknowledges the problem of nutritional deficit in our foods, and on the one hand endorses supplementation for animals, while on the other hand bans citizens from supplementing their own diets."
Jill Bell, president of the Irish Association of Health Stores said 2.5pc of the population had signed the petition and indicated they will be unwilling to give a "yes" vote in the referendum to be run on the EU Treaty.
Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands are unique among the 27 EU member states in having had higher-level supplements freely available for the past 40 years. And there's been no record of serious adverse side effects, said Dublin health food expert Erica Murray.
The recommended daily allowances for vitamins are outdated, she insisted.
Around 45pc of the population here take vitamin and mineral pills.
