Some MEPs make misleading statements to support the quack nutrition industry

*update*

Due to discrepancies and ommissions in EU documents I may have got the names of the attending MEPs wrong.  I have also confirmed that one additional MEP, Mairead McGuinness was also present. I cannot confirm for certain whether Proinsia de Rossa and Gay Mitchell were present, nevertheless I have chosen to keep their names here as they are members of the petition committee (assuming EU documents are up to date).

Before Christmas I investigated how the Matthias Rath funded European Referendum Initiative had enlisted the support of several organisations and individuals including the Irish Associate of Health Stores (IAHS) and the MEP Kathy Sinnott.  Ms Sinnott has now distanced herself from Rath while the IAHS chose not to, now both have colluded to present a misleading and inaccurate petition to the Eurpean Parliament in an attempt to subvert an evidence based review into nutritional supplements.  They have been aided in this attempt by the Irish MEPS, Marian Harkin, Proinsias de Rossa, Mairead McGuinness, Gay Mitchell, Eoin Ryan and the UK MEP Roger Helmer – according to a press release from the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), advisors to the IAHS and supporters of Rath themselves.

On Monday, the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) defended its petition in the European Parliament against the European Commission’s planned setting of EU-wide maximum limits for dosages of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The petition, submitted originally in December 2007 with the support of 60,000 Irish citizens, claims that measures to harmonise maximum levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements under the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC)—soon to be implemented by the European Commission—will unduly impact consumers, health stores and practitioners in Ireland.

Now there is sound scientific evidence that supports arguments for the regulation of vitamin and mineral food supplements, not least because there is no proven benefit for healthy individuals but there is the possibility of harm from the taking of such supplements.  It is this that makes the following statements from MEPs so absurd

Kathy Sinnott, MEP, and alternative health eurosceptics still associating with Matthias Rath

Last month I blogged about the relationship between alternative health eurosceptics, the MEP Kathy Sinnott and the murderous quack Matthias Rath.  During the leadup to that blog post I had corresponded with the MEP Kathy Sinnott and informed her about the reputation and practices of Matthias Rath, while I found it difficult to get Ms Sinnott to criticise Matthias Rath I thought at the very least she might rethink her association with the European Referendum Initiative (ERI) – a Dr Rath Foundation funded organisation.  Sadly I was wrong.

The latest press release from the ERI was published on the 8th of December and not only features contributions from Ms Sinnott but from large sections of the Irish alternative community.  The GM-free Ireland Network, the Leitrim Organic Farmers Co-operative Society, the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS), and the Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health also contributed.  These organisations, as well as Ms Sinnott, are campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty because they feel it threatens their business interests by imposing regulations and standards on their respective industries.  They are entitled to do this as part of a democracy and as part of the EU but it raises serious questions about their judgement that they associate with Matthias Rath funded organisations to gain publicity for their arguments.

I contacted all the organisations above providing them with details about the activities of Matthias Rath.  I have recieved only two replies, one from GM-free Ireland and one from Jill Bell of the IAHS.  GM-free Ireland informed me that they had never heard of Matthias Rath and only heard of the ERI the week previously when the IAHS contacted them about releasing the statement – which they were happy to do as it supported their political position.  This is credible as the ERI seem to have removed information about the role of the Dr Rath Foundation from most of their pages since I last wrote about them.

Jill Bell, president of the IAHS simply informed me:

I am well aware of where my allegiance lies and with whom I correspond, as is the Association I represent.

I do not associate with anonymous individuals or causes.

This bizarre statement seems to suggest that Ms Bell and the IAHS are happy with their collaboration with the ERI.  Certainly they have been aware of my concerns and my correspondence with Kathy Sinnott since at least the 20th October when they were copied in on emails sent by Ms Sinnott.  In fact these emails were sent directly to Ms Bell as well as the ERI and another email address used by the IAHS.

Both Kathy Sinnott and the IAHS cannot claim ignorance over the activities of Matthias Rath and his involvement with the ERI as justification for their involvement.  There is no doubt that they have both taken the decision to continue their association with the ERI in full knowledge of the allegations against Matthias Rath.  Should any curious readers want a quick guide to the character of Rath then Ben Goldacre’s explanation of his court case with Rath, which will also be included in a new edition of his book, is revealing as is this blog post detailing how Rath exploits the Holocaust and surviviors of Auschwitz for his own ends.

Both Sinnott and the IAHS are behaving absolutely reprehensibly and it beggars belief that an MEP is prepared to associate with somebody who is partly responsible for the deaths of thousands just because it suits her prejudices.  Ethics are clearly alien to Ms Sinnott.  It also seems that the ERI are gently airbrushing the involvement of Matthias Rath from their pages, as the ERI are aware of my blog post and my contacting of  Ms Sinnott I do not think it too paranoid or conspiratorial to suggest that this is a deliberate attempt to hide their true nature.

Now that the Irish government have declared that there will be another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty I think it highly likely that the Dr Rath Foundation, through the ERI, Ms Sinnott, the IAHS and others, will attempt to manipulate the voting intentions of the citizens of Ireland through their propaganda.  This will not be an issue that dies, and it is one that crosses borders.  As my previous post stated the ERI are involved with many organisations and political parties across Europe and I expect that attempts by the Dr Rath Foundation to lobby politicians and the public will continue for some time.  I also expect that many more politicians, organisations and individuals, like Ms Sinnott and the IAHS, will happily sacrifice principles and ethics and use the ERI to further their political aims.  I would like to be proved wrong though and I will certainly make a point of contacting these to inform them about Matthias Rath to minimise his influence.    Meanwhile voters of Ireland, don’t listen to Ms Sinnott.  She has demonstrated that she has no ethics and is nothing more than a mouthpeice for the most vile aspects of the alternative health industry.

[BPSDB]

*update*

I neglected to mention in the text above this blogpost by Dr Aust that is a fine examination and condemnation of the actions of AIDS denialists, including Rath, in South Africa.

Matthias Rath, the alternative health eurosceptics and the MEP

Matthias Rath, the deeply odious and murderous quack nutritionist, is collaborating with representatives of the alternative health industry to campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and other EU legal decisions.  This alliance incorporates minor political parties in Germany and the Netherlands – AGFG and Partij voor Mens en Spirit respectively, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), the National Health Federation (NHF), La Leva di Archimede and the Zeus Information Service, all organised and brought together by the Dr. Rath Health Foundation.   I do not have the Dutch or German necessary to comment on the claims of the political parties but the other organisations are fundamentally dishonest, fraudulent and dangerous.

The Alliance for Natural Health

The ANH are supporters of Matthias Rath and chose to defend his failed attempt to silence Ben Goldacre in Britain’s libel courts despite the fact that Rath was unable to demonstrate that his case had any merit.  Matthias Rath is not the only discredited individual with dangerous ideas and practices that the ANH choose to support, they have been vocal in their support for Andrew Wakefield, the utterly discredited MMR/Autism hypothesis and the libellous and deranged writings of the deeply unpleasant Martin Walker.  In fact the ANH is a repository of many documents attacking the character and motivations of those who ask probing questions of the alternative health industry, including the highly respected Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst and many others.  The ANH also represent the supplements industry and are implacably opposed to the European Food Supplements Directive, an attempt to “harmonise the legislation and to ensure that these products are safe and appropriately labelled so that consumers can make informed choices”.

The National Health Foundation

The NHF are an American organisation that claim to be a consumer education and health freedom organisation with the aim of removing government restrictions on food, supplements and alternative therapies.  However this organisation is committed to more than the unfettered influence of market forces and an uncontrolled alternative health care sector, it actively promotes misleading and plain wrong ideas that potentially have dangerous and lethal consequences.

The NHF are opposed to vaccination and fluoridation amongst other health concepts and promote conspiracy theories, cancer cure quackery, homeopathic autism cures, AIDS denialism and many other egregious and dangerous lies through their suggested reading lists.

La Leva di Archimede

The English section of the La Leva di Archimede website is a collection of conspiracy theories and lies about science from various alternative health sources the world over with the familiar implacable opposition to evidence based healthcare that the previous sites show.

Zeus Information Service

Zeus is mainly a collection of links and articles that present the familiar distortions of science, character assassinations and support for discredited quacks, like Rath and Wakefield.  Zeus also send out a weekly email alerting the alternative health industry and supporters to criticism or support in the press or in blogs (I have had the occasional honour of a mention for this blog).

Dr Rath Health Foundation

The Dr Rath Health Foundation are a despicable and utterly irrational organisation that responded to Matthias Rath’s dropping of his libel case against The Guardian and Ben Goldacre with an unrepentent restating of his view that AIDS does not need to be treated with ARVs and accusations that drugs companies are complicit in genocide.  They believe that there is a conspiracy between oil and drug companies to control the IMF and restrict the actions of Barack Obama and previously claimed that George Bush and Dick Cheney would start WWIII by the 4th November to maintain the hegemony of the oil and drug cartel.  So far so delusionary but these delusions are not restricted to fantasies of armageddon and one world governments that would put an evangelical Christian to shame, they include the belief that vitamins and other quackery can cure AIDS.  A belief that some estimates suggest is responsible for over 300,000 deaths in South Africa alone.  A belief that Matthias Rath is evangelical about spreading to other parts of the world, his current focus seems to be Russia.

eu-referendum.org

These organisations have united under the banner of the European Referendum Initiative, an organisation that ostensibly campaigns against the Lisbon Treaty but a deeper analysis of their website reveals them to be little more than a lobbying group for the alternative health care industry, albeit one that misleads and lies and equates the horrors of the Holocaust with modern science and medicine.  Their aim is to prevent regulation of alternative medicine and campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty is just part of that aim.

The EU Parliament and the MEP, Kathy Sinnott

It would be hoped that this organisation consisting of deceitful lobby groups, anti-science fantasists and murderous AIDS denialists would be shunned the European Parliament and the elected representatives therein. Sadly this is not the case, Kathy Sinnott, MEP for Ireland South and member of the UKIP associated Independence/Democracy Group, has backed the European Referendum Initiative and leant her good name to this Matthias Rath backed organisation.  The support of an MEP is just what with this organisation wants, with it comes access to the halls of power, a name to drop to increase support and the cloak of political respectability.

I have been in contact with Ms Sinnott and put a number of questions to her concerning her involvement with Matthias Rath and the above organisation.  Ms Sinnott states that she had never heard of Matthias Rath, did not know of the link between the European Referendum Initiative and does not back him.  The European Referendum Initiative website clearly states that it is run by the Dr. Rath Foundation both on their homepage and about section and Ms Sinnott has refused to make a comment on or withdraw her support from the European Referendum Initiative.

Regardless of this Ms Sinnott did inform me that her involvement came about through the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) who put her in touch with their scientific advisors(!), the ANH.  It seems the IAHS, like the other lobby groups and industry representatives above, are opposed to the regulation of supplements and alternative therapies.

It is clear from reading some of the questions asked in parliament by Ms Sinnott that she is supportive of many of the views of the Dr Rath Foundation, the IAHS & ANH and their allies.  She is persistently asking questions on the safety of fluoridation,  the non-existent link between mercury and autism, scaremongering over dental amalgam, wifi in schools, and this is just in the last year.  She also has a track record of trying to allow the alternative health industry to profit from health tourism as well as asking for reduced/no VAT on alternative therapies.  It is also interesting to note she has condemned drug companies for carrying out unethical trials in developing nations, a lethal practice of Matthias Rath’s she has not commented on.

Ms Sinnott is naive, scientifically illiterate and an elected official who puts her support for favoured industries before evidence and the rights and health of consumers by arguing for increased market share, reduced taxes and little regulation of the alternative health sector.

A lobby of lies

It is saddening to see lobbying groups, political parties and MEPs actively promote utterly discredited, but culturally persistent, half-truths and lies about medicine, healthcare and herbal supplements.  There seems to be a fundamental disrespect for the role of the scientific method in healthcare or perhaps a gross ignorance of science within much of political and lawmaking institutions.  It is not surprising that elected officials operating within this environment are prepared to consort with highly dubious groups and individuals who flatter their prejudices and confirm their mistaken and ignorant beliefs.  Kathy Sinnott’s inability to appreciate scientific evidence has led her to put her good name to the odious Dr. Rath Foundation and allowed the offensive grouping behind the European Referendum Initiative access to the halls of power.

The alternative health sector has proven time and time again to be incapable of self-regulation, this is why it is of considerable concern that they are lobbying the EU parliament against legislative regulation of their products.  If they succeed will will reach a situation where the deaths and injury from alternative healing fantasies will not just be the responsibility of the practitioner concerned, they will be the responsibility of all those who lobbied against regulation, including elected officials like Kathy Sinnott.

[BPSDB]