Time To Speak Out
Author: Maharishi Ayurveda Date Posted:22 February 2016
I wanted to bring you an important update for the future of Natural health Products in New Zealand. If you are from outside New Zealand and you use our products then this will affect you also. Note this legislation is not yet law, but in the final stages of being drafted.
Time is of the essence
The New Zealand Ministry of Health is now calling for final submissions on the proposed Natural Health Products Bill, which aims to provide a more rigorous framework for managing and assessing natural health products sold in New Zealand. Deadline for comment from both industry and public is 4 March 2016
One concerning element is the legislation will utilise a list of acceptable ingredients - if an ingredient in a natural health product is not on the list it is deemed unacceptable and unable to be sold in New Zealand.
Our current legislation provides a list of unacceptable or banned ingredients, which cannot be utilized in a natural health product and it has been a very reasonable and cost effective way to manage the process.
Why am I mentioning this? Because a team of Ministry of Health experts is collectively deciding what is acceptable or not acceptable for you and I to buy and use for our personal health needs.
The bottom line…
Many health products that are on the shelves in NZ today will disappear, simply because a team of regulators have decided some ingredients or the quantity of those ingredients are not acceptable. And decisions will be based on a model that is weighted with modern medical thinking and not acquainted with traditional medicine.
This is not isolated to New Zealand. Australians already have experience of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Europe has recently gone through a similar shift and challenges are still playing out in their legal system. Our new regulations have been closely modeled on the current Australian TGA and Canadian systems, which is a concern for those of us who rely natural health products to maintain our wellbeing.
Kiwis take action
If you are a New Zealand citizen, have your say, but do it soon.
- Sign a petition of concerned citizens. One has been created by Professor Julia Rucklidge, University of Canterbury NZ http://chn.ge/201huu0
Her concern about the “single ingredient approach” using nutrients, aligns with our Ayurvedic model of multiple herbal ingredients where “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.
- Write to your Member of Parliament or arrange a meeting with them to express your concerns surrounding this legislation. It has the potential to remove a large number of till now “safe” products from the market through a list of “permitted ingredients”. Smaller product companies will struggle with the added annual registration fee per product, particularly those with a large range of products.
- FYI: Download the submission to the NZ Ministry of Health prepared by researcher Dr Guy Hatchard.
- Consider making a personal submission to the NZ Ministry of Health via their consultation process http://bit.ly/1MTMVSn Deadline is Friday 4 March 2016
Many thanks everyone for your concern
Wayne Perkins
Maharishi Ayurveda Products, New Zealand