The Food Supplements Directive was passed by the EU last June, and is one of three pieces of legislation that will destroy the market for complementary remedies.

The directive has been passed in the name of consumer safety, as it lists additives such as vitamins and minerals decided by experts to be safe ingredients in supplements.

Over 300 ingredients, which have been used for many years and caused harm to nobody, have been excluded yet the experts have let slip in three ingredients which could kill you within seconds.

They have astonishingly given the green light to sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and calcium oxide, better known as caustic soda, caustic potash and quicklime. Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are used as drain and oven cleaners, and calcium oxide is used to destroy carcasses of humans and animals.

Nobody knows how this bureaucratic bungle happened, but it throws into doubt the whole process. At the very least, the whole Directive needs to be thrown back to the Commission for redrafting (which, knowing the way the EU works, should postpone it for 10 years or so).

If all of this is so bad, why haven’t we heard more about this, you might be asking. Unfortunately, there are quite a few groups in the alternative and complementary camp who will benefit from the EU initiatives, as they see them creating a ‘harmonised’ market throughout the EU for their low-dose products.

With so many interested groups supporting the legislation, it’s vital that we get YOU to add your voice to the public protest we’re planning next June through our not-for-profit group, the Health Freedom Movement.

* If you’d like an HFM poster for your local health shop or community centre, or if you’d like a bundle of leaflets to distribute, let us know by e-mailing us at Dom@wddty.co.uk.

We also need your money! Membership to the Health Freedom Movement is £20 (and donations in excess of that are very welcome, too), for which you will receive 4 newsletters a year, bumper-stickers and badges. You can e-mail your credit-card details to the above e-mail address, fax them to us on 020 8944 9888 (outside the UK, that’s +44 20 8944 9888), or post a cheque (made payable to ‘Health Freedom Movement’) to: Health Freedom Movement, 2 Salisbury Road, London SW19 4EZ.

The website is http://www.healthfreedommovement.com