April 2007

Congresman asks FDA for plans
to reduce contamination in vitamins

A U.S. Congressman has chastised the FDA for failing to investigate allegations of contamination of vitamin products.

In an April 4, 2007, letter addressed to Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) reprimanded the FDA for “fail[ing] to investigate serious allegations of potentially dangerous levels of lead in some vitamin products.”

Waxman is the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which has broad oversight and subpoena authority.

Citing a recent report that claimed to find 15.3 micrograms of lead in the daily dose of one brand of a multivitamin for women, Waxman identified several “relevant standards,” including FDA’s “provisional total tolerable intake levels” of daily dietary lead, with daily limits of 75 micrograms for adults, 25 micrograms for pregnant women, and 6 micrograms for children age 5 and younger. He observed that the daily amount of lead in this multivitamin “is more than half of FDA’s suggested ‘total tolerable level’ for a pregnant woman … and more than twice the suggested tolerable level for a small child.”

In the letter, Waxman asked the FDA how it plans to address the findings of lead contamination in the women’s multivitamin and how it plans to address the issue. His letter is posted on the American Herbal Products Association Web site, www.ahpa.org.

Source: American Herbal Products Association, www.ahpa.org

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