Unsafe Herbal Products Still Sold on Net
Excerpt by Gene Emery, Reuters Health

Herbal products containing a harmful chemical are still widely offered as "natural" medicine over the Internet, even after more than two years of widespread warnings about its use, researchers said.

Their findings, published in a recent issue of New England Journal of Medicine, showed about 100 Web sites were selling 115 products known or suspected to contain aristolochic acid, a potent chemical that can cause cancer and kidney failure.

The study "reveals a serious flaw in the safety protection afforded to the public," said researchers Lois Swirsky Gold and Thomas Slone of the University of California, Berkeley.

Products known to include the chemical included "Cramp Relief," "Cold Away," "Mother Earth's Cough Syrup," "Old Indian Herbal Syrup" and "PMS-Ease," according to the Carcinogenic Potency Database, a separate project directed by Gold.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of the dangers of such products in 2001. The agency is powerless to control them because by law it cannot regulate herbs and other so-called dietary supplements, even if those products are widely promoted as treatments for various ailments.

"The failure to protect the public from the imminent hazard of aristolochic acid indicates that there is an urgent need to remove these products from the Web and to develop a policy that addresses Web sales of hazardous herbal products," the study said.

The herb was banned in Belgium in the 1990s after it caused permanent kidney failure in dozens of people. It was also outlawed in the United Kingdom in 2000 based on two cases of kidney failure. Canada, Australia and Germany have also banned sales of the substance.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".