Thanks Cave for the link to this New England Journal of Medicine article: “The majority of consumers believed that dietary supplements are approved by a government agency, and two thirds thought that the government requires that labels on supplements include warnings about their potential side effects and dangers.” This is frightening!

One of the ones that I had to become familiar with was FAIM (Foundation for the Advancement of Integrated Medicine). It has now disappeared except for the wayback machine but a lot of ‘Baby FAIMs’ have been popping up—- many with the same cast. In FAIM’s mission statement was this sentence:

“FAIM’s mission is to secure free choice in healthcare.”

Sounds great, right? Think again. It was established in order to provide supplement manufactures and sellers a high-sounding motive.

But FAIM and DSHEA have combined to make the supplement industry a very loose and sometimes dangerous combination.

“Unfortunately, lenient regulatory oversight of dietary supplements, combined with the FDA’s lack of resources, has created a marketplace in which manufacturers can introduce hazardous new products with virtual impunity. Although manufacturers have since 2007 been required to report serious supplement-related adverse events to the FDA, the great majority of the estimated 50,000 adverse events that occur annually remain unreported”.

See also: American Roulette — Contaminated Dietary Supplements

SourceWatch investigators quote the Digest on climate change, for example: “Although most scientists agree with the IPCC report, some organisations express skepticism towards certain conclusions regarding uncertainties, human influence, adverse consequences or actions needed.” And in spite of the official disclaimer “GreenFacts takes no position concerning the views expressed in the linked documents” – ALL of the Digest links are to those critical of the IPCC for taking global warming too seriously. It does not include any links to websites that argue in support of the science behind climate change.”

Thanks for this link, Barbara – very interesting article. I particularly liked Jeanne’s illustration of industry practices like “astroturfing”. More on this in:
“Sock Puppetry, Astroturfing, and the Marketing ‘Shill’ Game” at:
https://ethicalnag.org/2010/03/22/shill-game/
I love your site!
cheers,
C.

Barbara Feder Ostrov
Deputy Editor, ReportingonHealth.org